# So what happened to ice milk?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-ice-milk/345598>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 22, 2006, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-ice-milk/345598 "2006-02-22T06:09:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tiltypig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@tiltypig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiltypig)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-ice-milk/345598/1 "2006-02-22T06:09:37Z")

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I remember ice milk in the grocery stores about 15 years ago. What happened to it? I thought it was supposed to be the next big thing in ice cream technology!

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**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-ice-milk/345598/2 "2006-02-22T08:11:12Z")

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> [@tiltypig](#):
>
> I remember ice milk in the grocery stores about 15 years ago. What happened to it? I thought it was supposed to be the next big thing in ice cream technology!

A couple of problems, as I recall:

- it wasn’t much better, health-wise, than regular ice cream.
- it didn’t taste nearly as good.  
So why bother?

Which was pretty much the reaction of buyers (or non-buyers) – it generally didn’t sell well enough for grocery stores to keep stocking it. It’s probably still available, if you look for it. But not in your average supermarket.

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**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-ice-milk/345598/3 "2006-02-22T12:35:07Z")

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Yes, it’s still available, and it’s _widely_ available. The US government allowed a redefinition of what can legally be called “ice cream” and now instead of ice milk you see all kinds of low-fat ice creams. It used to be that “ice cream” had to maintain a certain percentage of milk fats (and maybe other solids); ice milk was allowed to have fewer. Non-dairy frozen desserts didn’t have to have any at all.

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-ice-milk/345598/4 "2006-02-22T13:31:47Z")

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To clarify: instead of calling their product “ice milk,” they call it “low-fat ice cream.” You should see plenty of that at your grocer’s.

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**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-ice-milk/345598/5 "2006-02-22T13:42:06Z")

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Yeah but what about [Mellorine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellorine)?

:eek:

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**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-happened-to-ice-milk/345598/6 "2006-02-22T15:00:04Z")

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I haven’t been to a Dairy Queen in about five years, but at that time all their frozen products were ice milk.