Food Trend: Melt Resistant Ice Cream

The struggle is real.

If you’ve ever had an ice cream cone in your life, you know it all too well.  The popular treat often used to cool us off in the Summertime heat, has a very common problem that science is out to solve – it melts. Like, a lot. Especially in the heat, THE IRONY! Science stepping in to allow us to enjoy our ice cream cones longer and longer is something truly groundbreaking and beneficial to us all.

How did they do it exactly? Banana plant waste! Which, they say – makes for a better tasting cone too. Said to be creamier, and healthier for you! All the wins!

Japanese scientists developed the less-melty ice cream using strawberries in the past, but couldn’t quite hit a high note on the creamy texture. Thankfully, more hopped on board to keep this discovery going, and when a couple Columbian researchers teamed up with the scientists at the University of Guelph (Canada) they were able to discover that the plant matter of a banana, the kind typically tossed when harvesting bananas (one man’s trash is another man’s gold, apparently) and when their tiny cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) were extracted and added to ice cream it slowed melting, increased shelf life and even made the sweet treat lower fat. Pretty cool, huh?

Read more about the exciting, earth-shattering, scientific announcement HERE.

Summer just got less sticky. Well, minus the whole thighs sticking on plastic chairs thing.