Chinese icecream that doesn't melt, consumers share videos

Viral videos appear to show the frozen dessert charring rather than melting. Photo / The Telegraph

It is touted as the Chinese Häagen-Dazs, made with natural ingredients and packaged with a "locally inspired" design.

But consumers are shunning Chicecream's expensive new dessert after they discovered it does not melt.

The invention of an icecream that can withstand a naked flame may be seen as a major breakthrough for some.

But viral videos of the products refusing to so much as drip have led to questions about what exactly is in the popsicles.

"What's it made out of that it can be that sturdy?!" said one person on China's carefully controlled social media.

"I wonder if it will melt in your stomach," mused another.

"What is in there?" plainly echoed others.

The firm, Chicecream, responded to videos of people taking a lighter or small blowtorch to its icecreams by saying: "We believe that it is not scientific to judge the quality of icecream by baking, drying or heating icecream."

One video circulated online claimed that the icecreams did not fully melt when left in a 31C room for an hour.

The company said the use of a seaweed-derived food additive – carrageenan gum – allowed the icecream to hold its shape.

"All the icecream are produced according to national standards," the company said in a statement online. "The carrageenan gum helps the milk proteins maintain stability."

Chicecream fashions itself as the "authentically Chinese icecream popsicle", and has tried to carve out a niche as a premium food brand, with sugary cold treats priced at multiple times the cost of products made by rivals.

One popsicle, shaped like a Chinese roof tile, can cost as much as $15 (66 yuan). Even its more affordable offerings are priced at $4.80 (20 yuan).

The company has long drawn complaints over cost, with customers saying such snacks aren't worth the accompanying price tag.

"It's how much it costs," founder Lin Sheng has said before of the pricey pudding. "Take it or leave it."

But the firm has always cited the use of quality ingredients as the reason, a line the public is now mockingly seizing upon given the unmeltable icecream scandal.

"They've added flame-retardants to the icecream; no wonder it costs that much!" quipped one person online.

Stomach-turning food safety scandals

This isn't Chicecream's first brush with scandal. In 2019, the firm was fined a total of $2100 (9000 yuan) for false advertising regarding its ingredients.

China has a long history of stomach-turning food safety scandals, including fake eggs that bounce like rubber balls, pork that glowed blue, tofu fermented with sewage and even "gutter oil" – used cooking oil discarded by restaurants, spooned out from sewers and resold to unsuspecting customers.

In 2008, melamine-laced infant formula killed babies and sickened thousands.

Authorities have pledged to boost the oversight of food safety standards, though companies and counterfeiters have continued to cut corners.