Breyers Ice Cream and Frozen Dairy Desserts

Breyers offers a wide variety of ice cream and frozen desserts. The texture, flavor, and ingredients are similar to other brands in the marketplace. In fact, even the brand name is often confused by one of its top competitors: Dreyer’s (a Nestle brand).

This food review provides a detailed overview of Breyers sweet dairy treats. It includes an explanation of the difference between ice cream and frozen dairy desserts, an analysis of calories by macronutrient, and the ingredients for many of the brand’s most popular flavors.

Breyers Ice Cream vs Frozen Dessert

Is It Ice Cream?

The first thing to note is not all of the containers in your grocer’s Ice Cream freezer is actually ice cream. At least not as it’s defined by the USDA.

Ice cream is made primarily with 100% real dairy products, which may include milk, cream, milk powder, and whey. It may also include other additives that act as stabilizers, emulsifiers, and flavoring agents.

By comparison, other frozen dessert options look like ice cream and taste similar to ice cream, but are made with various other ingredients, including oils.

Moreover, even if the desserts share some of the same ingredients as real ice cream, the dominant ingredients in frozen desserts that don’t qualify as ice cream are often added sugars, water, gums, or a type of oil.

Standards for Ice Cream

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there are certain grades and standards that must be met in order for a product to be labeled as “Ice Cream.”

The standards for ice cream include the following:

Additional standards apply when optional bulky ingredients such as cocoa solids, flavors, or sweeteners are added.

Marketed as Frozen Dairy Dessert

Food products that do not meet such standards cannot be labeled as Ice Cream.

Breyers uses the term “Frozen Dairy Dessert” for many of its products, including Vanilla Fudge Twirl, Extra Creamy Vanilla, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavors.

Breyers Summary Nutrition Facts by Flavor

Breyers ice cream and frozen dairy desserts do have a couple of nutrition facts in common.

Use the following table to compare calories, fat, carbs, and added sugars in many of Breyers top ice cream and frozen dessert flavors.

Calories

Total calories in Breyers ice creams and frozen dairy desserts vary by flavor. The total ranges from 120 to 200 calories per serving.

Calories by Macronutrient

Carbohydrates contribute the highest proportion, up to nearly 70%, of total calories.

Fat makes up between one quarter to one half of the total calories. And approximately 4% to 8% of calories is from protein.

Breyers Ingredients and Allergens

As noted above, the ingredients used for products labeled and marketed as Ice Cream must adhere to standards set by the USDA. This is apparent from Breyers use of the term “Frozen Dairy Dessert” for products that do not qualify as ice cream.

The frozen dessert terminology is not unique to Breyers. It’s used by OREO, Dreyer’s, Blue Bunny, and Klondike, among many other brands.

Breyers ice cream generally contains fewer ingredients compared to the alternative dessert option.

For example, here is a comparison of the ingredients between two of the brand’s vanilla flavored treats: Natural Vanilla (its original vanilla ice cream) and Extra Creamy Vanilla (a vanilla-flavored frozen dairy dessert).

Ingredients and allergens vary by flavor. The following chart provides a summary of ingredients in popular Breyers ice cream flavors and Breyers frozen desserts.