Frozen Dessert Manufacturing

Frozen Dessert Manufacturing

Description:

The research paper comprises of an analysis of "Ice Cream and Frozen Dessert Manufacturing". The NAICS and SIC code for this industry are NAICS code 311520, SIC code 2024. This industry comprises of establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing ice cream, frozen yogurts, frozen ices, sherbets, frozen tofu, and other frozen desserts (except bakery products). According to the NAICS description, 2002, the Ð''Ice cream and frozen dessert manufacturing' includes custard, frozen, manufacturing; desserts frozen (except bakery), manufacturing; frozen custard manufacturing; fruit pops, frozen, manufacturing; ice cream manufacturing; ice cream specialties manufacturing; ice milk manufacturing; ice milk specialties manufacturing; ices, flavored sherbets, manufacturing; juice pops, frozen, manufacturing; pudding pops, frozen, manufacturing; sherbets manufacturing; tofu frozen desserts manufacturing; and yogurt, frozen, manufacturing.

The production of ice cream begins with the milk produced by America's dairy farmers, for the manufacture of ice cream and other dairy products. Ice cream is a frozen, pasteurized mixture of milk, cream, nonfat milk solids, sugars, and stabilizers. Its contents and manufacture are regulated by the government and must meet Standards of Identity (Gale Encyclopedia of American Industries, 2005). An Ice cream must contain a minimum of 10 percent butterfat, which is dispersed throughout the mix to impart smooth texture. French ice cream, also known as frozen custard, also contains more than 1.4 percent of egg yolk solid. Recently, consumer concerns about the negative health effects of fat in the diet, however has led to a decline in this product. Such change in the preferences of the consumers led to the popularity of lower-fat products such as ice milk, which contained between 2 percent and 7 percent butterfat. Ice milk, as a product name, however, was extinct with passage of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act and was later called as low fat or fat-free. Premium ice creams are the most exotic of all the types. These kinds of ice creams use pure extracts and fruits, nuts, candies, and syrups to add flavor. The next kind frozen yogurts are made using the bacteria cultures streptococcus thermophilus and/or lactobacillus bulgaricus (Gale Encyclopedia of American Industries, 2005). Sherbets, by the definition, stated by Federal Code of Regulations have to contain between 1 and 2 percent of butterfat and between 2 and 5 percent total milk-derived solids.

b) Historical Background:

According to Troops, 2005, ice creams' early form can be traced back to 200 B.C. China, where a soft milk and rice mixture was further solidified by packing it in snow. In the 4th century B.C., supposedly, slaves were sent to mountaintops to bring back fresh snow, by the Roman emperor Nero which was then flavored with nectar, fruit pulp and honey and served as a treat. When European pioneers came to America in the 1600's, they brought the basic skills to manufacture frozen desserts (U.S. Dairy Export Council, 2001). Wealthy Europeans enjoyed water ices until creative cooks in France added the richness of cream.

Later, Nancy Johnson invented the first hand-crank ice cream freezer in 1846, and the first wholesale ice cream manufacturing operation in Baltimore was started by Jacob Fussell. Nancy Johnson's patented invention consisted of a wooden bucket that would be filled with ice and salt and had a rotating handle. Jacob Fussell, a milk dealer of Baltimore, had excess cream and he did not know what to do with it, so he decided to make ice cream. His ice cream business outsold the rest of the dairy business. He shipped his ice cream in trains packed with ice to Washington D.C., Boston and New York, and had also earned the title of the father of the wholesale ice cream industry. During the Civil War, he made a fortune by selling the first manufactured ice cream to Union soldiers. With the rise of factories in the 1800s, ice cream became a mass-produced treat, and by 1900, it could be afforded by everyone.

According to, Marshall, Goff, & Hartel, 2003, William Breyer opened his first ice cream store in Philadelphia in 1882. By 1896 the demand for ice cream caused Breyer's sons, Fred and Henry, to open their first ice-cream plant and to adopt for their label the briar leaf that is still the logo of Breyer's Ice-cream. Consequently, a second plant was added in 1904. The Breyer Ice cream Company, in 1905, was the first firm to use the brine-cooled freezer. By 1914 the firm's sales of ice-cream surpassed one million gallons. In 1925 and 1927 the firm became a division of National Products Corporation after it opened plants in Long Island City, NY and Newark and New Jersey, respectively. In 1969 the Breyer Ice cream Company became Kraftco Corporation, and then later in 1976 it became Kraft, Inc. Unilever, an Anglo-Dutch company purchased the Breyers ice cream business in 1993, combining it with Gold Bond-Good Humor Ice Cream Company and changing the name to Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream Company. The firm ranked first and second in both income from frozen novelties and ice cream in the United States in 2000.

The luxury, or super premium, ice creams that regained popularity in the 1990s were pioneered by Reuben Mattus in the early 1960s (Gale Encyclopedia of American Industries, 2005). Mattus was the creator of Haagen-Dazs, which was a highly successful product and that set the pattern for rich, clean-tasting ice creams, and in which he used all top-quality, natural ingredients, with no artificial stabilizers or other additives. Haagen-Dazs entered the ice cream market with products such as Dove bars and Haagen-Dazs frozen yogurt bars. In the 1980s, ice cream novelties such as ice pop, fudgesicles, and ice cream sandwiches which had been initially marketed towards children became popular with adults.

In the late 1990s, premium and super premium ice cream desserts which contained higher amounts of butterfat than regular ice cream gained popularity, as stated earlier, while frozen yogurt, a $585 million market, seemingly receded in its popularity. Earlier, novelties had been targeted towards kids and the packages were designed in a bright and attractive ways using cartoons and bright, bold colors. However, in recent years, more upscale super-premium novelties have been introduced for adults. According to Gale Encyclopedia of American Industries, 2005, ice cream as known today with a smooth and creamy, texture was introduced in the United States early in the twentieth century, as a result of two technological advances: homogenization, which reduced the fat particle size in milk; and a continuous