Walmart: Home of Faux Ice Cream

An article in the Los Angeles Times explains why the ice cream sandwich doesn't melt:

http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-walmart-ice-cream-sandwich-wont-melt-20140728-story.html

TLDR: stabilizers and lots of fat, less water in the product

Im really more shocked that it did not eat through the plate. I mean what person with any sense did not already know that wal-mart brand anything is garbage.

I'm not the biggest fan of Walmart, but in this case it seems kind of arbitrary where people focus their ire, considering if you look up the ingredients of the sandwich, it is about the same as the ingredients in other medium to low cost brands of ice cream sandwich (e.g. Blue Bunny used as a comparison above), with mainly just different variations in the particular plant based gums used to thicken it.

And in this case, the use of plant gums and emulsifiers to produce unique textures and different properties than expected is something people pay a lot of money for in various high end restaurants ("hot ice cream" that melts when it gets cold instead of hot was/is a big thing at some places, although that uses methylcellulose instead of gums). But when it comes from some place people don't like, it is jokingly expected to eat through plates.

All interesting comments. Thank you all, particularly for the L.A. Times article.

While I will do practically anything to avoid going into a Walmart, I agree that a lot of the "WalHate" is arbitrary and could be appropriately applied elsewhere for the same "violations."

You also need to look at the wording on the box. They get sneaky there. If it says "Ice Cream" anywhere on the box then it has a certain percentage of actual cream in it so they can call it "Ice Cream". If the box says "Frozen Dairy Dessert" then you are getting more chemicals than normal and it's not really ice cream at all. Take this picture for example. No where on the box does it say "Ice Cream". http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8MWI-_QUETU/UCJxp7a7I2I/AAAAAAAAFlU/Sm8Dp3s_k_c/s1600/Breyers+Blasts%2521+Mrs.+Fields+Chocolate+Fudge+Brownie+Frozen+Dairy+Dessert.jpg

Ice cream that doesn't melt? Genius! Willie Wonka-level genius!

I grew up with Breyers ice cream and would never buy any other brand. I was really upset recently to find they are now selling "frozen dairy desert" as the Steve Fox picture showed. It's a sad day when I now have to read the labels on Breyers to make sure I am buying ice cream.