Dairy Queen is known for its Blizzards and other sweet treats, but in a recent TikTok, one content creator questioned the base for many of these desserts: Is Dairy Queen using ice cream or some mysterious second thing?
The reason Moe Pooli (@moe.pooli) raised this question in a video posted in early May is because he was alerted by a friend that Dairy Queen’s menu never explicitly says the word “ice cream.”
“It’s been playing mind games with me for the last week,” Pooli said in his video, which has 52,100 views as of Sunday. “It doesn’t say ice cream anywhere.”
In his now-viral post, Pooli walked into a Dairy Queen. Once there, he flipped his camera around so viewers could see its menu.
He repeated a number of frozen menu items, such as cups, parfaits, Blizzards, and shakes. “It doesn’t say ice cream,” Pooli repeated. “All it says is, ‘blizzards’ or ‘cones.’ It doesn’t say… ‘ice cream cone’ or ‘ice cream Blizzard.’”
In the accompanying video caption, Pooli asked Dairy Queen to “explain please.”
@moe.pooli @Dairy Queen can you explain please #fypシ ♬ original sound – moe pooli ❤️🩹
Does Dairy Queen use ice cream for its desserts?
Pooli might have a point. According to Taste of Home, Blizzards aren’t technically ice cream. According to the FDA, a product must contain “not less than 10% milkfat, nor less than 10% nonfat milk solids” to be called ice cream. Dairy Queen’s soft serve, meanwhile, only has 5% butterfat content.
The FDA guidelines mean that Dairy Queen’s various frozen treats can’t be classified as ice cream, explaining why the chain often opts for the term “soft serve” instead.
While this might be a bombshell to viewers, Dairy Queen has actually been quite vocal about this. On its website, it explains why it doesn’t use the term ice cream on its menu.
“Technically, our soft serve does not qualify to be called ice cream. To be categorized as ice cream, the minimum butterfat content must be 10%, and our soft serve has only 5% butterfat content,” it reads. The statement goes on to say that while Dairy Queen’s soft serve used to be categorized as “ice milk,” the FDA revoked that category of product “to allow companies the ability to market frozen dairy products as ‘reduced-fat,’ ‘light,’ and ‘low-fat’ ice cream.”
So, regardless of what the chain calls its desserts, it’s legally obligated to label its frozen treats as something other than ice cream.
How are customers reacting?
Some viewers in the comments section, who said they were former Dairy Queen employees, said they still use the term “ice milk” to describe the base of each treat.
“I worked at DQ as a teen,” one person said. “It’s ice milk.”
“They’ve always advertised it as ice milk,” another said.
Others said they didn’t really care what the desserts were made of so long as they tasted good.
“It tasted good get over it,” another commenter wrote.
“Frozen treat simple enough for me,” another added.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Pooli via TikTok comment.
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