Ice cream, ice and sorbet - Packaging, formulation and quality control

This final article in the [F 8 010][F 8 011][F 8 012] series addresses four areas:

• end-of-line packaging, storage and transfer of finished products. This first topic covers the functional and technical aspects of the main packaging materials, which are described in paragraph 2.7 of article [F 8 012] ;

• formulation, which consists in preparing the composition of the mix, which is then blended and frozen. Formulations for the main frozen desserts are described in detail. A calculation approach is provided by way of example, bearing in mind that operators in the sector use software to replace the long and tedious calculations involved in balancing the mix's total dry extract and defatted lactic dry extract, fat content, sweetening power and expansion ratio;

• Numerous controls and analyses, both to improve knowledge of microstructure with the help of numerical simulations, and to control the quality of marketed products;

• the study of defects encountered in dairy desserts, important insofar as it enables the causes of technological malfunctions to be understood and corrective action to be rapidly implemented. The aim of this inventory is to offer finished products that comply both with current regulations and with consumer expectations, in terms of both health and sensory qualities.

A glossary of terms is provided at the end of the article.