You’re reading Signal vs. Noise, a publication about the web by 37signals since 1999.

Bit misleading to link to a flavour not on the list of five ingredient icecreams, isn’t it?

Yeah, really confused why you’re linking to ‘banana split’ flavor. It’s not the Five line of ice creams.

Here’s a link to the ice cream pictured above: link.

Less is more in bread too.

1 1/4 cups lukewarm milk 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 2 tablespoons butter 2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Compare that to your basic loaf of Wonder Bread next time you’re at the store. It’s a bit of a shocker.

Hey, its Breyers!

I like the move to “all natural” lately, but it seems that in general companies are copying what their competitors are doing, then branding it as if it were an amazing new idea. “We are new and different, just like everyone else!”

Boo hoo, the link is wrong.

the point of the post is still valid.

I think it was being suggested that this ice cream has only 5 ingredients, while another ice cream from the same maker contains all of these:

CREAM , SKIM MILK , SUGAR, FUDGE SAUCE (SKIM MILK , SUGAR, CORN SYRUP , COCONUT OIL , CHOCOLATE, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI , PECTIN, SALT , AND NATURAL FLAVOR ), BANANA PUREE , EGGS, CORN SYRUP , CHERRY PIECES , STRAWBERRY PIECES , CORN STARCH , NATURAL FLAVOR , PECTIN, LEMON JUICE CONCENTRATE .

More precicsely: 22.

All the same, at least I know what all these things are (with the exception of Alkali).

Always liked Häagen-Dazs.

@Corinne – You think that’s misleading? Try this:

From Wikipedia: “Contrary to appearances, the name is not Scandinavian; it is simply two made-up words meant to look Scandinavian to American eyes [...] A name was created by reversing the name of Duncan Hines (“Huncan-Dines”), an original potential marketer of the product. When that deal didn’t materialize the name was manipulated to sound Scandinavian.”

I think it’s brilliant.

I’ve been making ice cream like that for years in my Vita Mix. Yogurt, cream, honey, frozen fruit (usually strawberries, berries, pineapple – you can freeze cubes yourself) mix that with the liquids and voila! Fresh yummy ice cream….

I was quite taken at the weekend by Sainsbury’s (supermarket chain) FreeFrom branding.

I’d also be curious to see where they get their ingredients. Its not certified organic, so the other danger is that consumers think they are eating something “pure” when the label might read something like… Milk (Hormones, chow byproducts, antibiotics, pasteurizing agents, additives)...

Less really is sometimes “more” than you might realize as well.

I wonder though, isn’t it really “more” when you create a whole new ice cream product when you already have one?

If they dropped their traditional ice cream products for this, then we’d truly be talking about less.

Breyers All-Natural Ice Cream has used “the fewer ingredients the better” as a selling point for years.

I still remember the Breyers commercials showing two kids, each reading aloud (with varying degrees of success) the ingredients in two brands of ice cream. The Breyers kid breezed through the list: “Milk, cream, sugar, eggs, vanilla.” The other kid predictably got hung up on “Polysorbate 80” and “diglycerides.”

They weren’t even trying to compete on taste…they changed the debate to simplicity and naturalness, with the implication that those made for a better product in the end.

It certainly worked on my mom…we were a Breyers-only family growing up. Now, as an adult, I can’t stomach artificially flavored or colored ice cream. Sorry, but mint chocolate chip shouldn’t be green! :-p

Häagen-Dazs does have a meaning. It means “American idiot”.

I eat Breyer’s and no other ice cream.

37 signals probably drinks Evian water. Naive spelled backwards.

Breyers was ruined in 1993 when it was bought by Good Humor.

The chocolate is processed with alkali, and all flavors have tara gum and the mysterious “natural flavors” now.

Sad, yes.

I love the comments already.

Another vote for Breyer’s :)

Certified Organic doesn’t mean “pure”, when organic certification standards are still pretty lax (at least in the US). You can get away with using quite a few different pesticides on organic food and still get “certified”. It’s a good marketing tool to get people to pay more for food that’s not necessarily better.

I believe in sustainable agriculture and where the organic movement has tried to go, but unfortunately they’ve been hijacked by many different interests in the last 5 years. When it becomes mainstream to be “green”, green will no longer be what you think it is.

I want my HFCS !!

Propaganda:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEbRxTOyGf0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVsgXPt564Q&feature=related

Facts and parody:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRicUInkYQM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYk4o_flKPk

Reminds me of that horrible Tropicana/Pepsi packaging.

Apparently Less does cost More! ;)

I like the packaging and the concept behind the marketing. It’s pretty up front if it’s true.

Sure, I realize “Certified Organic” is not “pure” in all cases, but there are ranges of how close things are getting. My point was more that they are trying to ride on the “wholesome” and “safe” bandwagon by copying a marketing approach Breyer’s has used for years, but really are not backing it up with substance.

With most companies, when they start offering “natural” ingredients when they previously have not, its all for show. (And what does that say for the junk they’ve been selling us before?)

It may have fewer ingredients, but you are still ingesting questionable chemicals and it will still make you just as fat. ;)

Well dosen’t speak to me. Strawberry-cheescake rulez.

Fritos has (have?) three ingredients: corn, salt, vegetable oil. Chili Cheese Fritos, on the other hand…

The only difference in ingredients between the regular and Five versions are that the latter uses more skim milk than cream (instead of the other way around). Others cut corners that the originals don’t. Vanilla Bean, for example, substitutes “vanilla bean” with “vanilla bean flakes and vanilla extract”.

So it’s not really “less” ingredients as a sales tool so much as “few” ingredients (which they could do for the originals as well). It’d be more accurate to market them as “lower fat” since they use more skim milk than cream, or “budget” as they’ve swapped more expensive ingredients for cheaper ones.

But, uh, good job giving them a helping hand on to the bandwagon, 37signals. A marketer gets his wings today! :D

There’s absolutely nothing dangerous or bad about corn syrup. It doesn’t taste the same as cane sugar, but isn’t any more harmful.

RE: “There’s absolutely nothing dangerous or bad about corn syrup. It doesn’t taste the same as cane sugar, but isn’t any more harmful.”

There is plenty of research to suggest to the contrary. Just a week or two ago there was an article all over the news about how corn syrup is to blame for higher mercury content in foods. While it is not as clear at this point as dangers identified in trans fats or artificial sweeteners (though they were all called perfectly safe at one point too) I’m not interested in taking the gamble on the one body I get in this life. You are welcome to, but I don’t see any benefit.

The general move towards organic, non-artificial, etc is mostly due to people getting tired of finding out 20 years later that the “safe” stuff they were eating is what is causing their health problems now.

I’ve always loved Tabasco sauce in this regard. Three ingredients: vinegar, red peppers, salt.

@silly: There are reasons besides health to avoid corn syrup.

Read the book In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. May change your perspective on “what is food.”

http://www.michaelpollan.com/indefense.php

Regarding “cocoa processed with alkali”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutched_chocolate

How about this ice cream costs $7 for 14 fl. oz, not even a pint! Are they out of their minds?

I love Häagen-Dazs. Especially Amazon Chocolate. The stuff that comes in half gallon size is also half air. I cannot stand fluffy ice cream.

But seriously? Häagen-Dazs wants to charge $7? are the lids made with real gold?

Reminds me of the German Beer Law: Reinheitsgebot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot

There should be something like that for other products, for example ice-cream :)

In case you don’t want to read the wikipedia article, “cocoa processed with alkali” is perfectly fine—most of it is, that’s the “dutch process” that’s been around for a couple centuries. It provides a deeper flavored, darker colored cocoa, which would otherwise be reddish in color.

On the other hand, Breyers, my former fave, has shrunk containers from half-gallon to three pints, increased chemicals, and now some packages aren’t even Ice Cream, they’re “frozen dairy dessert.”

@Chuck: I’m sorry, you’re just wrong. All research to the contrary is so far totally weak or uncorroborated. HFCS isn’t putting more mercury in your foods, and HFCS is not dangerous or unhealthy at all.

There are things out there that are horrible, but HFCS just isn’t one.

Fat people are fat because they eat too much. That’s all.

@Reese: “There are reasons besides health to avoid corn syrup.”

Yeah, silly ones, like religion or crap like that maybe.

RE: “The general move towards organic, non-artificial, etc is mostly due to people getting tired of finding out 20 years later that the “safe” stuff they were eating is what is causing their health problems now.”

So I guess if they use certified organic corn syrup then everything is OK?