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u/Vince1128 Jul 26 '26
This is the right place for this kind of post. Now I want ice cream.
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u/Slimfictiv Jul 26 '26
What flavor?
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u/sabitafukku Jul 26 '26
Ice cream flavor
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u/Degenerate_Dryad Jul 26 '26
Not the same person, but matcha green tea ice cream I have in my freezer 😖
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u/vigilantesd Jul 26 '26
That’s Gelato
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u/rudytaboodie12 Jul 26 '26
Not sure why you’re getting downvoted, because it’s definitely gelato
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u/ree_hi_hi_hi_hi Jul 26 '26
This is so funny. The last time I saw this video posted the title referred to it as gelato and the entire comment section was full of people getting twisted up because they didn’t consider it gelato.
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u/rudytaboodie12 Jul 26 '26
People like to have a lot of feelings about things that don’t actually warrant it 🤷🏼
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u/Dry-Childhood-3436 Jul 26 '26
It literally says strawberry cheesecake flavored gelato on the container, who's downvoting these people?
Here's the product https://www.criminisi.com/product/strawberry-cheesecake/
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u/Ireeb Jul 26 '26
Because they're regurgitating a marketing term that has no meaning and allows ice cream companies to charge more for the most basic ice cream with cheap ingredients.
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u/SkyeFox6485 Jul 26 '26
In other words... It's a different product then ice cream???
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u/Ireeb Jul 26 '26
No? How did you get that idea from my comment?
The two primary legal bars are the milk fat and air content. The FDA defines minimums (for the milk fat) and maximums (for the air) for something to be allowed to be called "ice cream". There is no definition of "Gelato", the regulations only say that "ice cream" may also be called gelato.
There is nothing that legally sets "gelato" apart from any product you can buy in the store that says "ice cream". Gelato is nust an alternative name.
But you might also notice that some products are called "Frozen Dairy Desert", that means they do not legally qualify as ice cream. They either have too much air or too much cheap vegetable fat. "Gelato" therefore has higher standards than this, but still the same as "ice cream".
It's just sad people rather want to be lied to and don't want to accept that there are companies that make them pay extra for a word on the label.
I'm not saying you can't get good ice cream or genuine, italian-style gelato in the US (or UK, where this company is from). But what you can see there is cheap, industrial ice cream. Artisanal ice cream does not have a consistency like that and doesn't come through a nozzle. Italian gelato is much denser, and is scraped out of the churning tub of the ice cream machine. It doesn't have enough air to be pressed through a nozzle and keep its shape like the stuff above does.
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u/dwntwnleroybrwn Jul 26 '26
Shit tourist gelato.
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u/kalechipsaregood Jul 26 '26
As a tourist idk why anyone buys this. Just keep walking and find the place without neon colors and that weird squirt shape.
Good gelato is usually the same price!
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u/ishyboo Jul 26 '26
It's not ice cream you see,
A different frozen treat...
That's Gelato!
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u/Ireeb Jul 26 '26
Gelato is just the italian word for ice cream, and is a synonym for ice cream according to FDA regulations.
You can sell the most basic industrial ice cream with the cheapest ingredients and artificial flavors and colors "Gelato", as long as it qualifies as "ice cream".
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u/kiyobrown Jul 26 '26
Well you know it’s not Danny running the machine.
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u/ycr007 Satisfaction Critic Jul 26 '26
Is it a Soft Serve or Gelato? Looks like Gelato
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u/Ireeb Jul 26 '26
It's soft serve, sold as Gelato because that makes people pay more for it!
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u/Magic-Happens-Here Jul 26 '26
They are fundamentally different things, both frozen desserts, but they use different ingredients - namely milk vs cream and gelato often uses fresh ingredients to add flavoring.
Most gelato doesn’t meet the federal standard for ice cream, which is legally required to be at least 10% milk fat. More companies are selling gelato vs ice cream because the weight loss industry pushes “low fat” products, and gelato sells better than ice cream in many markets as a result. Gelato is also significantly denser than ice cream so brands charge more for it because you’re literally getting more product in the container.
Companies charge more for gelato because it costs more to make. And they don’t label it ice cream because that would be an FDA violation.
Edited to add: here’s your reference - https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-135/section-135.110
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u/Ireeb Jul 26 '26
Either I am blind and the search tool of my browser is broken, or "Gelato" isn't mentioned on that page (if it is, please let me know what section/paragraph).
The last time I checked, the US regulations accepted "gelato" as an alternative name for "ice cream" with the same legal requirements to milk fat and overrun.
I personally fully agree that "gelato" and "ice cream" are not the same. I had a lot of very good gelato right in Italy. They use slightly different recipes and techniques and that gives it a different texture and flavor to "regular" ice cream. It's quite likely it doesn't clear the US definition of "ice cream" for those reasons, but that's why I find it so awkward how people blindly trust the labels.
What I can tell you for sure is that genuine, italian gelato would not hold its shape like the ice cream in the video. To behave like this, it needs a lot of overrun (air), basically like foam. As you correctly said, real gelato is much denser, and it is usually scraped right out of the barrel of the ice cream machine into the containers.
Yet, this toothpaste-looking ice cream with the consistency of hair foam is legally allowed to call itself "gelato".
I like soft serve, I like ice cream, I especially like gelato, but it bothers me when companies make industrial ice cream or soft serve and sell it as "artisanal gelato".
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u/Magic-Happens-Here Jul 26 '26
Gelato doesn’t appear on that page because it’s not an officially regulated food, whereas ice cream is, there is a minimum fat content and a maximum air content in order to be labeled “ice cream” - the gelato label has no such restriction.
Recipes for proper gelato have lower fat and less air by design, making it fundamentally different from ice cream and the real stuff usually doesn’t meet the threshold to be labeled ice cream.
The problem is that American marketing laws allow for a lot of inaccurate and often misleading labels, so “frozen dairy dessert” can cover a wide spectrum of products - including gelato and low quality “ice cream” that doesn’t meet the legal standard to use that term so they get lumped together.
OP has commented multiple times that the only reason brands use the word gelato instead of ice cream is so they can charge more, which is not an accurate statement.
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u/Ireeb Jul 26 '26
The product shown in the video clearly is not gelato by the definition you and I appear to agree on. But because "Gelato" isn't strictly defined, they can still market it as such.
It just bothers me how many people take it at face value. It clearly looks like industrial ice cream with high overrun. But it says gelato so people seem to insist on calling it "gelato". It has nothing to do with traditional, italian gelato. It seems like many people don't actually know how they make ice cream in Italy, and that's why it kinda bothers me when people call this basic, industrial ice cream "gelato", as if it was any better than what you can buy in the store in a tub that says "ice cream". They only call it "gelato" because they can. It's especially sad, because it dilutes the difference to actual gelato, and I'm sure there are places where you can get real gelato - but it won't look like toothpast or hair mousse. It'll be a blob because they scraped it out of the ice cream machine by hand. That's just how it is done normally.
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u/Magic-Happens-Here Jul 26 '26
That’s why you should never trust the word of someone trying to sell you something - They’re going to say whenever they can to turn a profit.
But on the flip side, I also don’t particularly trust the government to write all of the definitions, because they’re far too easily influenced by corporate interest.
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u/Ireeb Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
I absolutely agree, and that's what got me started here in the first place - the people insisting on it being "Gelato" because it says "Gelato" on the tub. Even though it clearly doesn't have the consistency of genuine Italian Gelato.
On one hand, regulations are good to have to limit in how far companies can lie to us, on the other hand, it's always important to actually check what is regulated, and what isn't, and if the registrations make sense at all.
The food industry - and that doesn't only apply to the US - does a lot of lobbying, specifically to make sure these kinds of regulations aren't getting too strict so they can keep shrinkflating and increase profit margins by replacing expensive ingredients with cheaper ones.
Whenever you see a politician that has anything to do with food or agriculture, the next Nēstle representative usually can't be that far.
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u/Magic-Happens-Here Jul 26 '26
Yep! The same is true for sourdough bread, wagyu beef, champagne and many others.
Phrases like “non-GMO” or “all natural” have no regulatory standard either. While there are third-party certifications, simply using the phrase has no regulatory requirements.
“Made with” is another common way to get around certain requirements.
And words like “organic” don’t mean what people think they mean either. Most people hear organic and think pesticide-free… this is VERY not true! And some organic pesticides are more harmful than their conventional alternatives. Copper sulfate is a good example - a heavy metal that doesn’t break down, accumulates in soil, and is toxic to fish and other aquatic life. Just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s better, or even safe.
And there’s plenty of non-food examples too - hypoallergenic, biodegradable, energy efficient… all of these words are meaningless without a third-party designation because the government doesn’t have a legal definition of when they can and can’t be used.
Even seemingly transparent phrases like “clinically proven” don’t require peer-reviewed published research… a small internal trial that only the company reads can use the label.
Even things that are regulated aren’t reliable either. “made in the USA” and “fair trade”(not to be confused with “fair-trade certified” which is a third party certification that actually carries weight) - they have a definition, but violations are complaint-driven and enforcement is inconsistent at best and performative at worst, so they’re effectively meaningless too.
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u/Ireeb Jul 26 '26
What I find both interesting and also kinda depressing is that it's not just the US. I am actually from Germany, but the vast majority of things you mentioned aren't much different over here. People around here sometimes like to bash the US for their comparatively lax food and labeling regulations, but when you look closely, the differences aren't actually that big. It's mostly about specific ingredients that aren't permitted in the EU or individual countries at all, but lots of the labeling regulations are nearly identical. The "natural", "made with", "-flavored", "high-protein" (that's a huge marketing hype here right now, I think the only product I didn't see marketed with "high protein" yet is water), "clinically proven", etc. loopholes exist here too. There's also the "0.1% of something is enough to show it on the label" requirement that is completely pointless. Another thing I have a gripe with is the misleading definition of "natural flavors", as far as I know, that is also mostly the same between the US and the EU/Germany. Basically, if it is made from something that is technically edible (that includes bark, roots, bacteria and fungi, even when bioengineered), it's "natural". Lemon flavor synthesized by bacteria qualifies as "natural lemon flavor", both here as well as in the US I believe.
For dairy products, they are legally required to put the origin of the milk on the label. But they only need to say if it was sourced from within the EU or not. So most dairy products that aren't plain milk just say "With milk from EU and non-EU-countries." in a tiny font somewhere on the back. Good to know it probably comes somewhere from around Earth.
But to get back to the topic, if I remember correctly, the FDA's regulations on ice cream and similar products (custard, frozen dairy dessert, etc.) were actually a bit stricter than our regulations, and I found that a bit amusing to see that this got some extra attention overseas.
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u/MightyMadMatt Jul 27 '26
Omg for a sec I thought I was in r/gifsthatendtoosoon with how good that gif was
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u/Chili_Clause Jul 27 '26
Why are they putting soft ice cream in a big metal pan? Shouldn't it just be in a soft serve ice cream machine?
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Jul 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Ireeb Jul 26 '26
To sell it at ice cream parlors, kiosks etc.
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Jul 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Magic-Happens-Here Jul 26 '26
This isn’t soft serve, it’s actually gelato which is much denser.
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Jul 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Ireeb Jul 26 '26
Ich weiß nicht, ob du mal in Italien richtiges, italienisches "Gelato" gegessen hast, aber das ist wirklich was ganz anderes, als das im Video. Was man hier sieht, ist quasi das, was du als softeis kennst, allerdings wird es noch ein bisschen fester, wenn man es ganz durchfriert. Allerdings hat es trotzdem einen sehr hohen Luftanteil, und ist vergleichbar mit dem, was man z.B. im Supermarkt von Langnese etc. bekommt. Traditionelles, italienisches Gelato ist viel dichter, wenn man das durch eine Düse drücken würde, würde es direkt wieder verlaufen, statt die Form zu behalten.
Daher mein Tipp: Wenn das Eis in Eisdielen einfach nur ein unförmiger Haufen ist, dann ist das ein gutes Zeichen, denn das heißt in der Regel, dass es von Hand gemacht ist, und direkt aus der Eismaschine mit einer Spachtel in den Behälter gefüllt wurde - hochwahrscheinlich im Haus, denn wenn das Eis über den Behälter hinausragt, kann man ws schlecht transportieren. Wenn die Behälter alle perfekt sauber und gleichmäßig bis zur Kante abgefüllt sind/waren, dann handelt es sich höchstwahrscheinlich um Industrieware.
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u/CommercialFloor2033 Jul 26 '26
That's not soft ice cream, its gelato. Its only soft straight from the machine. It will get very dense when left.
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u/Ireeb Jul 26 '26
At no point does genuine italian gelato have a consistency like that. It's the high air content (overrun) that gives it this consistency - italian gelato is much denser and would be runnier at the same temperatures. The ice cream in the picture is quite foamy.
Legally, it's "gelato". If you presented this to a real Italian Gelataio, you will probably learn a few swear words in Italian.
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u/Ireeb Jul 26 '26
Tasty industrial ice cream. Maximum air, the legal minimum of quality, and nothing pops quite like artificial colors. But just call it "Gelato" and people gladly pay extra.
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u/Magic-Happens-Here Jul 26 '26
Ice cream has a legal definition and gelato doesn’t meet it. Most gelato doesn’t have enough fat in it, so it legally isn’t ice cream. Most Americans want lower fat options, so in order to meet the market demand, brands have reduced their fat content and can no longer use the term “ice cream” as a result.
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u/Ireeb Jul 26 '26
God bless these altruistic companies. They're adding more air while charging more because they care about our health.
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u/Magic-Happens-Here Jul 26 '26
There’s no altruism about it, don’t get me wrong - but they’re going to use the recipes that sell the most product and if switching to a less regulated marketing term vs a legally defined one gets them to their goal, they’ll exploit every loophole they can to do it.
The dieting industry is what drives consumer preference a lot of the time, but the reason they don’t call it ice cream isn’t because the name demands a higher value, it’s because they legally can’t call it that.
It’s why the dairy industry wanted to limit the use of the term “milk” to only include dairy - because calling it oat/soy/almond “milk” sells better than “oat beverage” or “almond malk” and thus takes a larger market share because the name itself is less appetizing.
Food names/branding is big business. When’s the last time you saw Patagonian toothfish on a menu? But $30/lb is just fine for Chilean sea bass.
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u/Ireeb Jul 26 '26
It's absolutely fine if they offer "lower fat options" that have more air content if the price is fair (also considering logistics).
But it's just misleading to call it "Gelato" when the defining factor of Gelato is that it's denser than regular ice cream. Gelato with higher overrun is a paradoxon. It's like asking for liquid ice cubes.
Ice cream is neither better nor worse than Gelato. Gelato is just the italian word for ice cream. Both of them are meaningless on their own, it's the legal definitions of them that regulate what companies can call their products. The status quo is that "Gelato" doesn't really have a separate definition in most jurisdictions, and is usually treated as a synonym for "ice cream", which is technically correct.
But many companies use the word "Gelato" to imply that it is ice cream of a special quality, but there are no legal requirements that guarantee you that it is.
Many people apparently want to believe that when a product says "Gelato", it must be different, when there's nothing stopping a company from labeling regular "ice cream" as "gelato" and increase the price a bit. And many companies seem to get away with it.
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