Ice cream has a legal definition in the US, and it doesn’t require cream as an ingredient.

>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, constitued 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.

Whether McDonald’s product meets that standard, I am not sure.

They just call it "creamy vanilla soft serve" so they don't have to worry about whether or not it can be called ice cream. https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/mcflurry-with-ore...

Whenever I read government definitions of food, I find myself no longer hungry for "food".

In order to meet that standard, cream must be introduced to get that amount of fat and solids. So, no, it doesn't meet that standard. If it did, McD would advertise it as such and they don't.

In addition, real ice cream purveryors would be up in arms over it. And they have in the past.

In UK they're called "McFlurry", in the desserts menu, but the description is "Soft dairy ice cream, swirled with ...".

The ice-cream ingredients are:

"Ice Cream

Ingredients: EITHER: Allergen Ingredient: Skimmed MILK, Sugar, Cream (Allergen Ingredient: MILK), Whey Powder (Allergen Ingredient: MILK), Glucose Syrup, Stabilisers (Guar Gum, Carrageenan), Emulsifier (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Flavouring. OR: Allergen Ingredient: Reconstituted Skimmed MILK, Cream (Allergen Ingredient: MILK), Sugar, Whey Powder (Allergen Ingredient: MILK), Glucose Syrup, Allergen Ingredient: Skimmed MILK Powder, Stabilisers (Guar Gum, Carrageenan), Emulsifier (Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids), Flavouring."

Source: https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/product/galaxy-salted-car...

Why should I care about the "ice cream" purity gatekeeping? Frozen desserts are delicious. Italian Ice also isn't Ice Cream, does that mean it's bad?

No one said anything about it being bad. The point is, the article and the title are calling it ice cream and it is not ice cream.

It is ice cream, they even call it as such on their website. People are so weird about commercial food production and this didn't always used to be the case, its GMO hysteria but for 90s kids. Like clockwork as soon as you explain what different preservatives, binders, emulsifiers and conditioners actually do and how they do it they stop being scary.

Re: Why does my homemade bread go stale so fast?!

> Vanilla Reduced Fat Ice Cream

https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/product/mcflurry-with-ore...