Breyers is a brand of ice cream started in 1866 by William A. Breyer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Prior to 2006, Breyers was known for producing ice cream with a small number of all-natural ingredients.
In recent years, as part of cost-cutting measures since their move from Green Bay, Wisconsin, to Unilever’s U.S. headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Unilever has reformulated many of its flavors with nontraditional, additive ingredients, significantly changing the taste and texture of their desserts as a result. Following similar practices by several of their competitors, and to the consternation of many former customers, Breyers’ list of ingredients has expanded to include thickeners, low-cost sweeteners, food coloring and low-cost additives — including natural additives such as tara gum and carob bean gum; artificial additives such as maltodextrin and propylene glycol; and common artificially separated and extracted ingredients such as corn syrup, whey, and others. An ingredient list for Breyers Frozen Dairy Dessert may now include up to forty ingredients: Ingredients: milk, skim milk, sugar, corn syrup, cream, maltodextrin, whey, cellulose gel, mono & diglycerides, guar gum, cellulose gum, natural flavor, carob bean gum, carrageenan. caramel swirl: sugar, water, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, non fat milk solids, butter, salt, molasses, pectin, soy lecithin, sodium citrate, natural flavor, lactic acid, potassium sorbate. waffle cone pieces: fudge coating (sugar, coconut oil, cocoa powder, nonfat milk powder, whole milk powder, anhydrous milkfat, soy lecithin, vanilla), waffle cones (unenriched wheat flour, sugar, corn starch, palm and/or soybean oil, bamboo fiber, soy lecithin, natural flavor, soy flour, salt), natural flavor.
One result of these cost-cutting practices has been that many (but not all) of Breyers’ products no longer contain enough milk and cream to meet labeling requirements for ice cream, and are now labeled “Frozen Dairy Dessert” in the United States and “Frozen Dessert” in Canada.
For several decades over 30% of Breyers products, including most of its products sold in the northeastern U.S., were produced in a large plant outside Boston, in Framingham, Massachusetts. As part of cost-cutting by Unilever, the plant was closed in March 2011.
