From ingredient exploration to production-ready ice cream
How recipe development, ingredient expertise and process validation turn new ideas into ice cream that runs reliably, scales with quality and gets to market with more confidence.
Ice cream is a category where familiar favourites can keep evolving. As producers look to refine recipes and respond to changing consumer demands, ingredients are becoming one of the smartest places to explore. That may mean adjusting fat blends, testing new proteins, adding ingredient inclusions, or shaping a different nutritional profile – all while protecting the indulgent experience consumers expect and come back to.
How new ingredients take shape
In classic ice cream, cream contributes both fat and protein. However, many products developed in recent years have started to combine dairy with vegetable fats such as coconut or palm, while more producers are also exploring plant proteins. In some cases, those products can come remarkably close to classic ice cream in taste and quality. That opens up new possibilities to respond to consumer preferences, work with different nutritional profiles, manage ingredient economics, or create something distinctive in the market.
Fava beans are one interesting example of how that process can create new possibilities. They’ve attracted attention for their ability to support a creamy, indulgent ice cream experience while also offering a relatively neutral taste and a light colour compared with some other alternative ingredients. At our Ice Cream Product Development Centre, that’s exactly where we help producers explore ingredients more thoroughly – through recipe development that reduces uncertainty, formulation and hands-on trials that support confident decision-making, and stronger process validation before bigger production commitments are made.
Ronnie Kragh Enggaard, Ingredients Expert at our Ice Cream Product Development Centre puts it this way
“A new ingredient becomes most valuable when it helps answer several questions at once. Can it deliver the taste and texture you want? Can it work in formulation? And can it keep performing when you bring it into freezing and production?”
That broader view considers how ingredient performance is rarely isolated to one part of the process. A promising ingredient may look strong on paper, but create complications in viscosity, aeration, overrun or line stability. Another may bring the right functional benefits, but fall short on taste, colour or consumer appeal. Like with fava beans, the goal is to identify ingredients that can enhance the product experience while still supporting smooth, reliable production.
Helping ideas move smoothly from mix to market
At our Ice Cream Product Development Centre, new ideas can be tested through hands-on trials that look not only at the recipe itself, but at the relationship between ingredient choice, process parameters and final product performance.
This makes it possible to evaluate how an ingredient affects flavour release, mouthfeel, texture, stability and processability before larger production decisions are made. And it’s just as relevant for local producers as it is for regional or global operations, helping producers assess concepts earlier, remove uncertainty make faster decisions on what to refine, and build towards more stable production by shaping the product and the process together.
As Ronnie explains:
“We don’t just ask whether an ingredient can be used. We look at what it changes in the product, what it means for the process, and whether it gives you a direction that’s strong enough to take forward.”
That distinction is important because a new ingredient still has to support the creaminess, smoothness and overall indulgent experience consumers expect from their ice cream. At the same time, it has to fit into a production setup where reliable output, efficient execution and consistent quality all matter just as much.
Support across the entire ice cream journey
With the right formulation support, ingredient guidance and trial capability, it becomes easier to assess what belongs in the next iteration of a product and what does not. Some ingredients may help improve texture. Some may support a cleaner flavour profile. Some may open up new product directions altogether. But without testing and validation, it’s difficult to know which opportunities are commercially and technically viable.
That applies whether you’re launching your first batch, expanding a regional favourite, or rejuvenating a high-volume bestseller. The scale may differ, but the value stays the same – a smoother, smarter way to turn ingredient exploration into ice cream that runs reliably, scales with quality and gets to market faster.