Have you noticed that ice cream tastes a little different recently?
If you have, you’re not alone. On the internet, countless users have shared questionable ice cream-related discoveries. Some have noted how certain ice cream brands do not appear to melt. Others have simply recounted the bizarre ingredients they’ve found in their frozen dairy treats.
Now, a user on TikTok is calling our Breyers after claiming that their frozen dessert didn’t taste how she expected. What is going on?
What’s Wrong With This Breyers Ice Cream?
In a video with over 2 million views, TikTok user Trisha Fenimore (@trishafenimore) shows two packages of Breyers frozen dessert.
“Does anybody know what’s happened to Breyers Ice Cream? That it’s no longer ice cream?” she asks.
According to Fenimore, she and her husband were trying to figure out why the Breyers “ice cream” she purchased “tastes so terrible.” Upon looking more closely at the packaging, she got the answer.
“We realized that nowhere on here does this say ‘ice cream,’” she explains.
She goes on to say that the texture and flavor are strange. Fenimore describes the taste as “metallic-y” and claims that eating the dessert left “a film all around my mouth and on my tongue.”
“What am I actually eating here?” she asks in conclusion. “Because it sure is not ice cream.”
Breyers ‘Ice Cream’ Vs. ‘Frozen Dairy Dessert’
So, is it true that Breyers “ice cream” is no longer ice cream? The answer is “it depends.”
According to a 2024 piece in the Dispatch, Breyers offers two different categories of products: classic ice cream and frozen dairy dessert.
The FDA has specific rules for what can legally be called ice cream. Some of Breyers’ flavors, such as its Homemade Vanilla, Chocolate, and Natural Strawberry flavors, meet those standards. As a result, customers can find those items on store shelves labelled as “ice cream.”
However, the company also offers “frozen dairy desserts.” Breyers says that these are different products that the company introduced to offer a smoother, lower-calorie, lower-fat option. This has been the case for at least a decade.
“Like ice cream, frozen dairy desserts are also made with fresh milk, cream and sugar but are not light enough to be called light ice cream nor have enough fat to be called ice cream,” a spokeswoman for Unilever, Breyers’ parent company, told The Dispatch.
The “frozen dairy dessert” does also feature gums and stabilizers. That said, the inclusion of these additives does not necessarily mean that a product is not “ice cream.”
For example, Walmart sells ice cream sandwiches that do not appear to melt thanks to the presence of the aforementioned stabilizers. However, these ice cream sandwiches still meet the legal definition of ice cream.
@trishafenimore @Breyers Ice Cream what HAPPENED, guys??? 😩😩😩 #food #foodtiktok #foodie #fypシ @thejamesfenimore
Commenters Aren’t Happy
No matter whether Breyers was legally protected in the description of their dessert, many commenters weren’t happy with the state of the American freezer aisle.
“Capitalism turned our ice cream into bioengineered chemical products,” declared a user.
“Stop buying it, force these companies to go back to Real Food or Go out of business,” offered another.
“Our food started really going downhill about 10-15ish years ago. It’s gotten NOTICEABLY worse in the past 2-3 years,” shared a third.
That said, some said reactions like these were exaggerated.
“This brand has always said frozen dairy dessert. For at least 15 years. This isn’t new. I think folks are just hyper aware, now because of everything going on,” wrote a further TikToker. “It’s similar to Kraft cheese being labeled ‘pasteurized cheese product’ and some juice being labeled ‘juice drink’ or noting that it’s only 5% juice. It’s always been this way, people just haven’t noticed until now.”
BroBible reached out to Unilever via email and Fenimore via TikTok and Instagram direct message.