When Ice Cream was a "Health Food"

Ice cream is one of the most beloved desserts in the United States. But it hasn’t always been the safest. In the 1800s and early 1900s, eating ice cream came with the risk of disease, food poisoning and even death. As laws and regulations made ice cream safer, the Ice Cream Industry tried to convince consumers that ice cream was not only safe to eat but actually good for you. This is the story of how ice cream went from poisonous to a “health food.”

Sources

“When Ice Cream Was Poisonous: Adulteration, Ptomaines, and Bacteriology in the United States, 1850-1910,” Edward Geist, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Fall 2012

“Death by Ice Cream,” Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, Aug 11, 2022

Of Sugar and Snow: A History of Ice Cream, Jeri Quinzio, 2009

“The Cause of Ice-Cream Poisoning,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jun 28, 1891

“Scores of People Seriously Poisoned by Ice Cream,” Asbury Park Press, Jun 27, 1892

“Impure Ice Cream,” Monmouth Democrat, Jun 30, 1892

“Report in Ice-Cream Poisoning Case,” The New York Times, Jul 16, 1892

“Ice-Cream Poisoning,” The Weekly Columbus Enquirer-Sun, Oct 7, 1893

“Wholesale Poisoning,” Buffalo Weekly Express, Jul 8, 1896

“Sickness and Death,” LeRoy Reporter, Jul 10, 1896

“Poisonous Ice Cream,” Newton Daily Republican, Nov 10, 1886

Announcement of Research Council of the Ice Cream Industry, The Kansas Union Farmer, May 13, 1926

“‘National Advertising’ Means,” J.E. Finneran, The Ice Cream Trade Journal, Jun 1926

“Why a Three-Year Investment?” Vernon F. Hovey, The Ice Cream Trade Journal, Jun 1926

“Report of Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Convention of the National Association of Ice Cream Manufacturers,” Oct 1926

“Ice Cream for Health,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Jan 24, 1930

“Ice Cream, Once a Great Luxury, Now is Health Food of Nation,” The Brooklyn Citizen, Aug 19, 1935

“Eat Five Billion Pints of Ice Cream Yearly,” The Barre Daily Times, Oct 5, 1949

“Ice Cream Favorite Dessert,” Daily Sun-News, Jun 22, 1961

“Pie’s fine; ice cream even better,” The Birmingham News, Jun 29, 1961

“Don’t Skip Ice Cream If Family is Dieting, It’s Not as Fattening as Many Kinds of Pie,” Mary Gibbs, The Macon Telegraph, Aug 3, 1961

“The Cream of Desserts,” Dorothy Crandall, The Boston Globe, Jun 4, 1969

“Across the Country, Ice Cream Mix-ins are All the Rage,” Judy Hevrdejs, The Spokesman-Review, Aug 9, 1988