If you like Breyers Ice cream, you might want to know this: (bread, 2013)
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It's your choice....not Breyers...to buy or not to buy. If you enjoy the flavor....buy. If you don't like what Breyers does to make it cheaper, don't buy. Your Choice.
It's also Breyers choice to make cheaper products so that owners or shareholders can continue to earn income on their investments.
After all, they could forget about making a profit. Just close the plants and go out of business. They should not have to say "lookie, we changed the size" for the few that don't have what it takes to see for themselves.
Ya'all need to get a life if you think this is an issue.
The issue is, the quality of ingredients and the package size goes down while the price goes up. It shouldn't take much to see that this is the spirit of the topic here.
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Buy an ice cream churn too. You'll be needing it.
Thanks, but I already have one.
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This thread has gone from a (valid) critique of the labeling and packaging used for different product types
...to one of pettiness about the use of a harmless thickener (since 2007 btw) in the one product they make
How, exactly, is it petty? Also, what difference does it make when they actually started? However, if you can happen to get past your own smugness, you'll see that it was already pointed out that this all started years ago.
I stopped buying Breyers when I noticed the change in consistency. I keep hearing about Blue Bell ice cream on CD, but the only thing similar I have seen around here is Blue Bunny and it is chock full of additives and chemicals.
For anyone pooh-poohing the addition of tara gum you need to ask yourself, do you keep tara gum in your pantry for when you make your own ice cream? Do you even know where to buy tara gum? No? Why is that? Do you know what it is? Did you know that the Peruvians (where this product comes from) use it as an insect killer? Ask yourself this - why would Breyers need to add an ingredient to their 'all natural' ice cream that does not appear in any ice cream recipe anyone has ever seen? And how come they were able to make their all natural ice cream without tara gum back before Unilever bought them out? People need to question why they are being fed trees and tree by-products - we are not talking about the produce like fruits and nuts, but the actual trees themselves.
There are few ice creams commercially available that I buy - I read the ingredients and as long as they are all items I recognize and would myself purchase and incorporate into my home made ice cream, it's ok to go in my shopping cart. Primarily, Haagen Dazs vanilla bean, chocolate, and strawberry.
I'm going to do some investigating on this Blue Bell everyone is raving about here. Is it a regional thing?
The only way Blue Bunny is similar to Blue Bell is in the similar name.
They make lots of delicious flavors, but their most popular is their Homemade Vanilla, which is exactly what it tastes like.
Blue Bell is a Texas company that for many years was only available in Texas, and not even all over Texas. It's now available throughout much of the south and some other regions of the country, I believe. Not sure where else.
We only buy Chocholate, so I guess we are fine for now..... But I guess I will have to pay attention, as I didn't even realize they reduced the size. I'm still confused on how you change the size of a half a gallon.
It's your choice....not Breyers...to buy or not to buy. If you enjoy the flavor....buy. If you don't like what Breyers does to make it cheaper, don't buy. Your Choice.
It's also Breyers choice to make cheaper products so that owners or shareholders can continue to earn income on their investments.
After all, they could forget about making a profit. Just close the plants and go out of business. They should not have to say "lookie, we changed the size" for the few that don't have what it takes to see for themselves.
Caveat Emptor, eh? It's a fantastic philosophical viewpoint that deception is a fair practice for the sake of profit, especially when perpetrated on the loyal or unwitting.
I had not really paid much attention to the size difference until Blue Bell started advertising that their ice cream was still sold by the half gallon. Since that's the only kind I've bought in forever, I hadn't noticed. But after hearing one of their ads I started paying attention and was surprised to see Bryers, and I believe some others cutting the size as well.
Have you read a Breyer's ice cream label recently?
The container in my freezer now says Milk, Cream, Sugar, Tara Gum, Natural Flavor
A switcheroo like what?
I haven't seen ANYthing beyond personal anecdotes that the Breyers **Ice Cream** I had
last evening is any different than Breyers **Ice Cream** I had 10 years ago or 40 years ago.
These other products the company is selling appear to be **additions* to their product line.
Well now, 40 years ago it would have been a half gallon and I'm pretty sure it didn't have Tara Gum and "Natural Flavor" but probably a truly recognizable flavoring like vanilla. The commercials I remember when I was a kid (probably from the 1980s) touted Milk, Cream, Sugar, Strawberries (for example) with the kid reading it whereas the kid couldn't read Polysorbate 80 in some other crappy ice cream. Remember those?
As for switcheroo, I was specifically referring to what is explained in the blog post linked from the first post of this thread. That happens to describe a change to the product, yes one that may be specific only to ***some*** flavors, but it appears to be a direct change in formulation to the Vanilla Fudge Twirl flavor, not an addition. Of course if by addition you mean Vanilla Fudge Twirl didn't exist in the product line ***40 years ago***, you might be right.
For vanilla if I don't make my own (which I haven't for a few months) I get Haagen-Dazs. In what is now a 14oz not-quite-a-pint. Or, if I need more, Turkey Hill all natural line. Ingredients in that one: cream, milk, sugar, vanilla. They seem to be expanding this line which is a good thing. Although, mostly, if I go for something with a lot of chunky stuff in it, I don't care as much about every little ingredient and might just get Ben & Jerry's instead (which like Breyer's is also Unilever wrecking things). I like Vanilla Heath Bar Crunch for example.
Some of this is preference though rather than an absolute higher/lower quality thing. I generally prefer to have less gums/stabilizers/whatever in ice cream, especially a plain one like vanilla, but even super gourmet ice cream people will sometimes add extra ingredients to facilitate better creamy mouthfeel, etc, etc. Tests apparently show that a lot of people won't care and of course they'll save money if they put stuff other than just milk and cream.
Main point though is with this or any other product that you buy you do need to watch out for changes in formulation (or packaging size) that MAY affect whether you would choose to continue buying it. A fair number of people are susceptible to buying the same brand name as 20, 30, 40 years ago assuming the product is the same when it isn't.
Some of this is preference though rather than an absolute higher/lower quality thing. I generally prefer to have less gums/stabilizers/whatever in ice cream, especially a plain one like vanilla, but even super gourmet ice cream people will sometimes add extra ingredients to facilitate better creamy mouthfeel, etc, etc. Tests apparently show that a lot of people won't care and of course they'll save money if they put stuff other than just milk and cream.
One thing that makes homemade ice cream have a creamier mouthfeel is adding a little bit of liquor, helps it not freeze as hard.
Ya'all need to get a life if you think this is an issue.
Buy an ice cream churn too. You'll be needing it.
This thread has gone from a (valid) critique of the labeling and packaging used for different product types
...to one of pettiness about the use of a harmless thickener (since 2007 btw) in the one product they make
that is STILL actually the product the OP tried to infer didn't exist at all.
I don't like cheap, fluffy ice cream. That's what Bryers has become.
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Or, if I need more, Turkey Hill all natural line. Ingredients in that one: cream, milk, sugar, vanilla. They seem to be expanding this line which is a good thing. Although, mostly, if I go for something with a lot of chunky stuff in it, I don't care as much about every little ingredient and might just get Ben & Jerry's instead (which like Breyer's is also Unilever wrecking things). I like Vanilla Heath Bar Crunch for example. 
