Conclusion

Conclusion 

Based on the results from all the practicals that were carried out we came to a conclusion for each different ice cream

The cheap ice cream contained the highest overall fat content and highest overall air content out of the three ice creams. Due to the high air content it makes the ice cream bad value for money. Furthermore in the melt test it came second which suggests that it contain preservatives rather than natural ingredient which slows down the rate at which the ice creams melts. On one hand the idea of ice cream containing a high amount of air can be seen as bad however from a physical chemistry perspective, ice cream has a colloidal structure. tiny air bubbles and ice crystals are dispersed among liquid water and a network of destabilized fat globules.

The medium ice cream came in the middle in both the fat and air tests. However it was the slowest to melt in the melt test. This could be due to the stabilisers (carrageenan, locust bean gum and gua gum) which holds the fat globules together which slows down the rate of melting. Moreover the choice of stabilisers greatly influences the formation and growth of ice crystals and the rate of the melting. In addition the medium ice cream contains emulsifiers; monoglycerides and diglycerides. These are compounds that are composed of glycerol combined on or two fatty acids. As food additives they interact with other lipids because of their hydrocarbon tail and the remain soluble by virtue of the exposed hydroxyl groups on the glycerol residue

The expensive ice cream had the lowest fat and air content out of all the ice creams. Although the expensive ice cream melted the quickest. This could be because this ice cream had just five ingredients and no preservatives or stabilisers. Therefore the ice cream melts quickly due to lack of preservatives.

Also the lower priced ice creams contain glucose- and fructose syrup and galactose as a substitute for lactose a natural bi-product of milk. One hand this allows people who are lactose intolerant to consume the product but on the the other hand it requires the manufacture to add more additives instead of using natural ingredients.

Therefore we can further conclude that the price does have an affect on the quality of the ice cream. Moreover the expensive ice cream is the best of the three because of the use of all natural ingredients and having the the least amount of air bubbles

The damaging consequences of the production of ice cream for the environment

All manifactured products which have to be packaged, have a damaging impact on the environment. The three ice creams, used in our experiment were packaged. The expensive ice cream package consists of cardboard and the lower priced ones are made out of plastic. The disposal of the packaging contributes to greenhouse gases (CO2) and the release of toxins (vinyl chloride monome).

The packaging also needs a lot of energy, for example oil is used for the plastics, and trees are cut down for the use of paper. For the processing of these raw and scarce materials a great amount of water is needed.
Another example of the energy being used is the essential cooling of the ice cream, which requires a significant amount of energy and so releases high emissions of CO2, again contributing to greenhouse gases. Finally the transport of the ice cream to stores and customers, which also increases the amount of pollution.

Another environmental impact are the cows which produce the milk used for the ice cream, as they require food and water, sources of energy and also they produce methanol gas, which is is extremely damaging towards the environment.
Also many of the products require certain ingredients which as vanilla flavouring from Madagascar in this case- connected to high CO2 emissions as a by-product of the long transport which results in further damage towards the environment.