Supermarket Ice-Cream With No Preservatives And No Artificial Flavors? Are You Crazy?

I'm one of those folks you might see at a supermarket who is standing there and reading the ingredients list on the back of a box or package. I care about what I put in my mouth, and try as far as I can (not with equal success) to not consume any trans-fat, preservatives, artificial anything, etc. Unfortunately, this is not that easy especially when I shop at a regular supermarket here in our area. Oh sure, one can go to one of those organic specialty stores, but who wants to pay that much all the time?

One of the most difficult item to shop for is, believe it or not, ice cream. Pick a typical box of ice cream at a supermarket, and you're buying a chemistry kit. Something as simple as a vanilla ice cream can have an ingredients list consisting of a dozen or more ingredients, often with chemical names that you've never heard of. And more often than not, you'll encounter preservatives and artificial flavors added to the poor ice cream.

It is why when I stumbled upon this particular brand of ice cream, I almost jumped with joy. I had written about the new Mariano's supermarket that opened recently in our neighborhood. On one of our browsing of the supermarket, we discovered this brand of ice cream called "Turkey Hill". Now, there are, unfortunately, two types of Turkey Hill ice cream. One has a lid with red-colored rim, while the other has a lid with a black rim, with the words "Naturally Simple" written all over the rim.

The red-rimmed box appears to be your typical supermarket ice cream, having the same laundry list of chemicals. It is also cheaper, and seems to be on sale pretty often. The ice cream with the black-rimmed box is the one you want, for sure!

We have bought the plain vanilla, the blueberry, and the mango. They were all winners and tasted terrific. That was the first and most important test, because it doesn't matter if the food is clean and healthy if no one wants to eat it. But what impressed me as much was the ingredient list.

This is the vanilla ice cream.

Now look at the ingredient list.

Crazy, right?

Here's the blueberry ice cream.

And the blueberry ice cream ingredient list.

I challenge you to look at these lists, and compare it with some randomly-selected ice cream sold in a typical supermarket. You'll understand why I was astounded that I can get something like this, and this good, in a supermarket.

The last time I saw an ice cream ingredients list that is this simple was on a Blue Bunny Premium ice cream, but either they had change their recipe, or I can't find it anymore. But as of now, other than going to our favorite local ice cream parlor, this Turkey Hill All Natural ice cream is our exclusive brand here at home.

Zz.