Saturday, July 23, 2011

Ice cream densities

Not all ice creams are alike. Ice cream containers are sold by volume, not by density. Because of this, many ice cream manufacturers "puff up" their ice creams with air, so although you may be thinking you're getting a bargain because 1.5 quarts of one ice cream is cheaper than an ice cream half its size, you may in fact be getting far less than you think!

For a long time I've wondered which brand of ice cream is actually the best price per amount of real ice cream you get- not including air. So, today I did something about it and weighed most of the ice creams at the grocery store on the produce scale and recorded, for each ice cream, the weight, size of the container, and price. Then I made a quick spreadsheet to calculate the densities as well as price per pound. The results!:



Note: Click the image to get to my picasa page where you can view the full size image.

3 comments:

  1. That experiment is for another day :)

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  2. You need some air in the ice cream, or you won't be able to scoop it out of the tub. But it's true some dairies overdo it.

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