Low Fat Vanilla Ice Cream – Tried and Tasted

by WLR Staff, Tim Sharp

Summer temperatures often mean only an ice cream will do to cool you down, and we all know how ice creams and healthy diet do not mix!

They are hard to resist when the ice cream man comes calling and if you are following a healthy diet, ice cream can be a disaster!  So, what do you do when you are calorie counting and eager to fit into that swimming costume?

With the supermarkets bursting with low calorie diet ice cream, how do you separate the low fat from the low taste or the healthy ice cream from the hideous slop?

As many claim to reduce your calorie intake and increase your pleasure zone at the same time, if you really want to indulge, never fear we’re here!

The super chilled tried & tasted team have sacrificed their day to try those low fat vanilla ice creams on your behalf – dreadful job, but we thought someone has to do it!!

Table 1: Low Fat Vanilla Ice Cream

Product	Carte Dor, Light, Vanilla Ice Cream, 4.5% Fat	Waitrose, Cornish Dairy with Clotted Cream, Vanilla Ice Cream	Sainsbury's, Be Good to Yourself, Vanilla Iced Dessert
Ranking	1	2	3
Appearance	Appeared appetising with real vanilla seeds.	Creamy looking and made you want to dive in.	Very watery rather than creamy.
Smell	Had a strong aroma of vanilla.	Very strong smell of vanilla also a whiff of butter.	Only a slight smell of vanilla
Taste	Subtle creamy and not over sweet taste, very palatable.	Considered a little over sweet by most of the team.	This one had a very artificial sweetness, not appreciated by the team.
Filling / Satisfying?	A large portion would be very satisfying.	This one gave you the impression it was never a low fat copy of ice cream, very satisfying.	Too sloppy to be satisfying and we doubted it could ever be filling.
Texture / Consistency	The consistency was pleasing to the eye and taste buds.	Had a good, solid yet fluffy, creamy texture.	Rather an icy texture and sloppy.
Conclusion	This product was considered to be the cream of the crop by all the team.	Quite acceptable for most. A very close second was the overall opinion of the team.	Considered by all to be a poor dessert, nothing to rave about.
Serving Size	50g	50g	50g
Calories (kcal) per serving	70	48.8	60
Fat (g) per serving	2.25	2.65	0.75
Price per serving	£0.15	£0.12	£0.10

Table 2: More Low Fat Ice Cream

Product	Morrison's, Eat Smart, Vanilla Iced Dessert, 80% Less Fat	Asda, Good for You, Vanilla Ice Cream, Soft Scoop, Less Than 3% Fat	Tesco, Light Choices, Soft Scoop Vanilla Iced Dessert
Ranking	4	5	6
Appearance	A very yellow looking appearance looked more like lemon than vanilla.	Very artificial in colour and melted all too quickly.	This actually looked like melting butter; comments thrown around were not enthusiastic.
Smell	Only a slight whiff of vanilla.	Another buttery aroma with the slightest hint of vanilla.	The main concensus, no smell of anything.
Taste	A very oily and sickly sweet taste.	A powdery watery taste, chemical after taste as well.	Chemical, artificial, over sweetened were the main comments.
Filling / Satisfying?	A bland mix which was considered neither filling nor satisfying.	The texture was considered too thin to be either filling of satisfying.	No satisfying qualities given at all.
Texture / Consistency	Melted too quickly and artificial.	This melted far to quickly into a slurry of yellow, with no substance.	"Shiny, oily melted slurry" was one of the more complimentary comments!
Conclusion	Not really to anyone's taste just a poor excuse for a iced dessert.	Not good was the main comment, and a poor substitute for ice cream.	The general opinion was that this had no resemblance to ice cream at all. A big thumbs down.
Serving Size	50g	50g	50g
Calories (kcal) per serving	34.5	58	68
Fat (g) per serving	0.35	0.85	2.2
Price	£0.10	£0.03	£0.03

With the multitude of choice on offer, some at very reasonable prices, Carte Dor Light vanilla 4.5% fat was first past the post as a clear winner and none remained when we went to clear up! Waitrose Cornish Dairy Vanilla with clotted cream came a very close second in the taste stakes, with our guys and gals loving that it didn’t taste like a reduced fat imitation.

Serving Suggestions

If you are worried that vanilla may be a bit too boring for your taste, then you can always add your favourite fruit… mmm, strawberries would be good with a dollop of your choice, or how about with Summer Berry Pudding.  Oh dear, making me hungry…