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Question: Only ice-cream made with milk can be labelled as ice-cream in my country (India). If it doesn't use milk, it has to be labelled as frozen dessert. Do other countries have similar regulation?
Per the USDA:
| Ice cream shall contain at least 1.6 pounds of total solids to the gallon, weigh not less than 4.5 pounds to the gallon, and contain not less than 20 percent total milk solids, constituted of not less than 10 percent milkfat. In no case shall the content of milk solids not fat be less than 6 percent. Whey shall not, by weight, be more than 25 percent of the milk solids not fat.
Not only must it contain milk, but the amount of milk and milk fat per unit volume is regulated in the United States.
I think the non-milky ones are usually called sorbets, but for example small fruity ice creams on sticks we still can ice creams and these don't have milk. So I guess my answer is no we don't (in Europe).
We colloquially call a lot of things I've cream that aren't labeled ice cream, and aren't legally ice cream.
The US has tediously long definitions for different foods, and ice cream needs specific proportions of milk products, as well as limits on other physical properties.
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=135.140
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=135.110
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?CFRPart=135
So while I might pick up some sherbet and say "I got ice cream", and people would know what I meant, it would never be labeled ice cream.
I also like oat milk ice cream, but it's actually labeled "frozen dessert" because it doesn't contain dairy.The company isn't allowed to use a term that might mislead a unwitting or uninformed consumer, but the consumer is free to have a more relaxed definition, and stores can put things where you would expect.
In the US we also have sherbet which is made with dairy; but we don't label it ice cream. So I'm guessing if we even have a legal ruling about it, it might not have anything to do with how much dairy is in it.
Also should add that my favorite non-dairy frozen thing is Rice Dreams. Which is like ice cream, but made with rice. It also doesn't claim to be ice cream.
The labeling is heavily regulated, it must contain a certain amount of actual cream too. Unfortunately shit tier “frozen desert” can be sold on the same shelf intermingled with the good stuff.
And the marketing doesn’t help either.
But it is very easy to check for the initiated bc it wont be labeled as ice cream. And easy to check ingredient list too. When I buy ice cream, I only buy when the first ingredient is actual cream.
In Canada, it must contain cream. Milk based desserts are labelled ice milk, and anything using oil or solids is a 'dessert'. The primary determining factor of the definition is the milk fat content.