ROCKY ROAD ICE CREAM — CLOSEST TO HOMEMADE®

Information updated June 2024

Homemade Rocky Road Ice Cream consists of the following ingredients:

CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM COMPONENT: Cream, Milk, Sugar, Egg Yolk, Cocoa and perhaps Salt and Vanilla.

MARSHMALLOW COMPONENT: Corn Syrup, Sugar, Vanilla, Gelatin and possibly Salt.

ALMONDS: Raw or Toasted. Some Rocky Road Ice Creams may contain different nuts.

Seen below, Unilever-owned Breyers Rocky Road Frozen Dairy Dessert is not real ice cream and contains multiple ingredients Not In Kitchen™ when making homemade Rocky Road Ice Cream including Water and Fructose. The first two ingredients are Skim Milk and Corn Syrup. (Source for ingredients: Unilever Breyers Web site 6/24) There is a legal Standard of Identity for real ice cream and Breyers does not meet this standard so it legally must be designated as “Frozen Dairy Dessert”.

Similar to Breyers, BLUE BUNNY ROCKIN’ ROCKY ROAD is not real ice cream and contains multiple ingredients we would never use at home including High Fructose Corn Syrup, Artificial Flavors x2 and Titanium Dioxide Color which is White color added to the Marshmallow component. This product has seven Thickening Agents >> no surprise given the primary ingredient is Skim Milk. (Source: Ferrero Blue Bunny Web site 8/24)

Target Favorite Day Rocky Road Ice Cream contains multiple ingredients we would never use at home including High Fructose Corn Syrup, four Thickening Agents and Cottonseed Oil. (Source: Target Web site 6/24)

EDY’S and DREYER’S are the same product with different branding depending on where they are sold. Owned by PAI Partners’ Froneri, the Edy’s and Dreyer’s Web sites both state,“Our founders created this classic almost 100 years ago and we continue (to) honor it with every scoop!” but the products contain ingredients which were not in use 100 years ago in Ice Cream including Oil, Gums, Modified Corn Starch and Monoglycerides. (Sources: PAI Partners Dreyer’s and Edy’s Web sites 6/24)

Whereas the majority of Rocky Road brands break out the ingredients within each component of the Ice Cream, some brands — such as Breyers, Tillamook and Häagen-Dazs — do not break out ingredients so it is impossible to determine in which component the ingredients exist. Is there Corn Syrup in the Marshmallow and also in the Ice Cream? Who knows? When solely owned by Nestlé, Häagen-Dazs ingredients were broken out by component . . . not anymore when primarily owned by PAI Partners. (Sources: Nestlé Häagen-Dazs Web site 11/19; PAI Partners Häagen-Dazs Web site 6/24; Tillamook County Creamery Web site 6/24)

Any ingredient Not In Kitchen is an ingredient which consumers pay for which does not need to be there.

Shown below, many Rocky Road Ice Creams contain numerous ingredients we would never use at home:

Seen below, we found only one Rocky Road Ice Cream which is Closest To Homemade® with no Gums, Thickening Agents, Chemical Preservatives, Emulsifying Agents, Colors, Flavors, Corn Syrup in the Ice Cream or added Oils >> NYC-based Morgenstern’s. Also look for local Ice Creams which are often Closest To Homemade and is a great way to support your local farmers.

*Neither money nor products are ever accepted to appear on the Closest To Homemade list*

Discover more food + beverages whose ingredients are Closest To Homemade in 275+ categories. Neither money nor products are ever accepted to appear on the Closest To Homemade list.

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