It defies your basic assumption about ice cream.
Everyone knows that ice cream is the perfect summer treat. But if you eat it outside you can’t expect it to be around for long. A few minutes in the July sun is enough to render any frozen treat from the best aisle in the supermarket into a creamy puddle, right?
Well, Walmart may have liked that problem. But you might not want to lick the solution. A growing amount of evidence seems to prove that the chain’s store brand Great Value brand ice cream sandwiches don’t melt—even in 80-degree heat.
California mom and TikToker Stephanie Duran (@stephynannas) presented proof of the ice cream’s bizarre properties in a video posted to her account one day ago. Captioned “Great Value Walmart ice cream left out for 4 hours. what’s in???? ice cream that doesn’t melt,” the video has picked up 611,500 views and counting as of Monday.
The screen text reads, “Great Value Walmart ice cream left out for 4 hours did not melt and turned yellow.”
In the video, Duran says, “So I saw a TikTok that said the Walmart brand ice cream does not melt because of all the preservatives.”
Picking up the yellowish “treat” she tells viewers, “I’ve had this out for, since three o’clock … Walmart ice Cream does not melt.”
Before anyone heads to the emergency room, don’t worry, the ice cream sandwiches reportedly aren’t going to harm you. According to Snopes.com, “All of the product’s ingredients have been deemed safe for consumption by the FDA.”
Different foods melt at different temperatures based on several factors, but, per Snopes, Walmart has stated, “Ice cream melts based on the ingredients including cream. Ice cream with more cream will generally melt at a slower rate, which is the case with our Great Value ice cream sandwiches.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Walmart for further comment.
@stephynannas Great Value Walmart ice cream left out for 4 hours. what’s in???? ice cream that doesn’t melt 🤨
♬ original sound – Stephanie Duran
In addition to cream content, the addition of chemical emulsifiers can also keep products such as ice cream sandwiches more stable at room temperature than traditional ice cream.
According to Snopes, “Manufacturers add gums and other ingredients like calcium sulfate and mono-diglycerides to help control the melting rate of ice cream. They are also added to stop large crystal formations from forming when the products are taken in and out of the freezer.”
Food blogger Emmeline Mayline “Emmy” Cho aka Emmymade took the heat up another notch in a video posted yesterday where she put the Great Value sandwiches and several other brands in an actual oven.
The sandwiches were in the oven at 84 degrees for three hours and did show some signs of melting (they also developed the yellow hue Duran described). “[They] kind of look … like melted marshmallow,” Cho noted of the Great Value sandwich fillings.
“It’s not frozen anymore,” Cho says, but notes the consistency is much like whipped cream.
One of Cho’s viewers commented, “This made me think of the old Du Pont Better Living Through Chemistry ads. Hell, I think I melt more at room temperature than those damned things.”
Another viewer, oipic (@oipic) noted, “This reminds me of a room safe ‘ice cream’ you can find in hospitals, nursing homes and disability accommodation sometimes.”
“The idea being that for ppl with swallowing issues who cant eat ice cream because it melts in the mouth and the texture becomes too “thin” and a choking hazzard, so this expensive stuff is marketed as being safe to swollow for ppl with modified swallowing requirements,” the commenter wrote.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Duran via TikTok messenger for further comment.
