AIBU to be annoyed by vegan ice cream?

[hoffa]

I love ice cream. A nice creamy strawberry ice cream, or maybe a raspberry ripple, or just plain vanilla. I'm happy to pay extra for good quality ice cream.

But one thing that has irked me in recent years is the prevalence of vegan ice cream being sold just as "ice cream". This is especially true at the theatre, where little tubs are sold during the interval and no where does it say the ice cream is vegan. Its too late when you've forked over £5 for a little tub of strawberry ice cream just to find out it's vegan and tastes nothing like a proper strawberry ice cream from the same brand.

For what it's worth, I'm vegetarian and eat a lot of vegan foods. For things like sorbet obviously it's no problem, but why ice cream?

It's like you want lactose intolerant and people with dairy allergies dead too?

Surely if you have allergies you check ingredients before eating.

😩😩 what, no, thats completely different to what I am saying

No but you might ask what flavours they have and be told vanilla, strawberry and mint choc chip, you choose the strawberry and then discover it is vegan.

Absolutely yes if it is a vegan alternative to ice cream it should say so.
I love vegan ice cream, magnum does an almond stick that is to die for.

As I mentioned previously, it seems there is no longer any mandatory requirement for "ice cream" to contain any dairy content at all! So, manufacturers don't have to use convoluted names like "vegan alternative to ice cream". They can just say it's "ice cream" if they want, and optionally mention that it's vegan as a selling point.

In my view the situation since 2015 is really unfortunate. As this thread demonstrates, customers believe the term "ice cream" implies a dairy-based product even if they may be unsure of the details of the requirements.

From this article:

Products labelled as ‘dairy ice cream’ must contain at least 5% milk fat, some protein from a dairy source and no vegetable fats.

However, there are no such regulations for a product to be labelled as ‘ice cream’.

This means vegan products as well as those using cheaper products such as palm kernel oil, vegetable fats or coconut oil, can use the ice cream label.

In many cases, fresh milk is substituted with reconstituted skimmed milk powder as well as water or buttermilk powder in the case of Tesco’s vanilla ice cream.

The rules changed in 2015 with the introduction of the Food Information Regulations, before which products had to contain at least 5% dairy fat and 2.5% milk protein to be defined as ice cream.

Ugh gross. Well I hope there's a backlash against the food industry, I'm not buying any more UPF crap.

Vegans think it's about them, it isn't. It's about making as much money as possible.

Yes, it’s not about marketing to vegans. This is about getting as much junk into our food as possible.

I want Rum & Raisin, or Mint Choc Chip, or Raspberry Ripple, or Triple Chocolate, or Pistachio... but no.
Although I did have some salted peanut vegan ice cream recently, which was delicious.

I always have to read the small print to check which of course you can't do in the cinema or theatre easily, I once bought some by mistake and it was vile, loads of sweet caramel flavouring to hide the non dairy taste

As a vegan, I can definitely assure you there is normally one or two vegan options a d the rest are dairy! I wish they were all vegan but I normally have to check the list or the pots themselves to find which option is vegan. Jude's vegan versions are lovely but I agree some of the theatres use one of the big dairy companies and their vegan options are terrible...but there's normally only a vanilla and a salted caramel from that brand in particular. If it's that bothersome you can do what I do every time and just ask which are the vegan and non-vegan options. It doesn't take long and they're normally very helpful!

This reminds me of the other Christmas when my dad was being twattishly anti-vegan about all my food (which he was not being given to eat) so I took his beloved Twiglets off him and told him they were also vegan so he had better not eat them. He shut up after that.

This is very helpful! A lot of authentic italian gelato is accidentally vegan...I love going to proper gelato shops! We also make an amazing cashew nut ice cream with our ninja that non-vegan friends rave about and only has a few ingredients - like any food with a shelf life most of the added ingredients in vegan and non-vegan ice cream are just for stabilisation.

YANBU. I actually bought a ninja creamii because I was so so fed up with the shite ice cream available.

It is fabulous!

You're right that a lot of proper gelato shops offer great vegan options, including traditional products like sorbets and granitas which have always been vegan. As an omnivore I often order and enjoy them. And you're also right that vegan alternatives to dairy ice cream and Italian gelato don't need to be UPF-laden Frankenfoods.

I'm slightly taken aback by the idea that "authentic" Italian gelato can be "accidentally vegan" though. From everything I've read and eaten I understand that gelato is historically a dairy milk-based iced dessert. You're hardly going to eliminate the main ingredient and replace it with something from an entirely different source "accidentally", are you?

What am I missing, please?

I'm fairly certain the word cream doesn't just apply to things containing cream made from cow's milk. You can get coconut CREAM, you CREAM together butter/sunflower spread and sugar when making a cake and you also buy antiseptic CREAM from the chemist.
Yes things should be labelled clearly what ingredients they contain but people also have the ability to ask (and anywhere selling food of any sort should have the ingredients list available either on the food packing or in a separate list for customers to check for food allergy/intolerance purposes)

Vegans use the term "accidentally vegan" to mean a product which has not been specifically designed for the vegan market, and which therefore isn't labelled as such, but it's in fact vegan. It also allows for the fact there may be cross contamination.

Gelato wasn't made dairy free for the vegan market so it is accidentally vegan.

"exhausted vanilla bean pieces"

I might change my username to that

I have had this experience with vanilla ice cream, which I belatedly realised was vegan! I do agree that some vendors seem to think they are interchangeable…

DD is coeliac and we often find the only gluten free item is also vegan. She already can't eat as much whole, unprocessed foods as other people the last thing I want for her is to be eating fake dairy as well. I presume for those who can't eat dairy they also find the overlap with gluten free offerings annoying.

Ah, understood. I'd disagree with the idea that a gelato-style non-dairy frozen dessert made without any milk or milk derivatives should be called "authentic italian gelato" though!

Yes, my DS is allergic to multiple things including dairy but has no issue with wheat/gluten and he gets very grumpy when the only things suitable for him are also gluten free! I understand why manufacturers do it, but it's quite frustrating sometimes.

Why? Lots of authentic Italian gelato is non dairy.

I'd be very annoyed if I bought this crap because it was advertised as 'ice cream'. It's not ice cream.
I would expect my money back.

Thinking about it more, my issue was that I understood gelato to be basically the Italian word for ice cream. Dairy-based varieties are called gelato and fruit or nut-based frozen desserts are called sorbetto (sorbet). Italian gelato traditionally contains milk, and has been distinguished from the ice cream more typically eaten in the UK by a lower "over-run" (less incorporated air) as well as by using more (dairy) milk and less (dairy) cream resulting in a denser product with a lower melting point. In my head gelato, like ice cream, is basically a dairy-based product.

However, I think I had muddled up the ideas of "authentic" and "traditional" slightly. Traditional gelato is dairy-based, and I would still somewhat struggle with the idea of describing non dairy versions as traditional Italian gelato. But on reflection gelato just means frozen, and I suspect Italians may not have the same issue with non dairy desserts being called gelato as I do with non dairy ice cream. Italians using non dairy ingredients to make gelato may well still be making authentic Italian gelato even if it isn't traditional.

In the UK context I know legally ice cream can apparently now contain no dairy content, but I don't personally like this. Non dairy cream alternatives like Elmlea can't call themselves cream, so why can non dairy ice cream alternatives call themselves ice cream? It seems like a confusing anomaly, and the number of people on this thread who assumed ice cream had to contain dairy ingredients is ample evidence of this.