Learn from the Experts: How to Make Ice Cream in a Factory

It’s easy to enjoy eating ice cream, the hardest part is picking which flavor to get. On the other hand, making ice cream – now that’s surprisingly complex! We’re grateful for all the expert ice cream manufacturers who make delicious ice cream every single day for us to enjoy. Curious how it’s done? We are about to give you the full scoop on how ice cream is made in a factory!

Ice cream begins in a flavor vat. Ice cream mix (aka the base liquid – read our post about ice cream mix here!) is combined with the flavor of the ice cream. For Original Moose Tracks, this is where vanilla is added. It’s stirred until the flavor is dispersed throughout the mix. Now we’re ready to freeze it into ice cream!

The flavored mix is pumped to the ice cream freezer where air is also pumped in. The manufacturer’s goal is to get the ice cream to 19-21 degrees Fahrenheit as it comes out of the freezer.

Once the mix is out of the freezer, tasty inclusions can be added. This is where the delicious peanut butter cups and Famous Moose Tracks fudge would be added for Original Moose Tracks! There is some amazing machinery that makes sure each carton or tub of ice cream gets the right amount of fudge and cups.

Once our Original Moose Tracks has its fudge and cups, it’s deposited into the cartons and tubs. After filling, the packages of ice cream head to a hardening room, where they sit for a few hours to become frozen. What’s crazy about a hardening room is that it’s way colder than our typical freezers – it’s anywhere from 0 to -40 degrees Fahrenheit! This helps the ice cream maintain its shape in the container and prepares the carton to head to your grocery store or scoop shop. After that, it is packed up and shipped on a frozen truck to its destination! Last stop – your freezer!

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