Hi Trav, Chrissy, and Luke:

I did some re-con work at the store… and followed up with some google slash wikipedia-ing. There ya go. Bring on the inexpensive real ice cream!

Although promoting itself as a ‘natural ice cream’ in the past; like some of their competitors, many Breyers flavors have recently been reformulated with cheaper nontraditional ingredients. These changes include the addition of tara gum and replacement of real cream with skim milk. As these products now consist mainly of milk and skim milk rather than milk and cream they can no longer legally be called ‘ice cream’ and are instead labeled as ‘frozen dairy dessert’.

For example: All Natural- Uses all-natural ingredients derived from natural sources, however, not as natural as they used to be (for example, ‘Chocolate Flavored Chips’ and the addition of Tara Gum as a stabilizer to promote a creaminess for cost-cutting measures).

You’re welcome,

Kate