Storing ice cream is a challenge for retailers and restaurants.
You want your product to be displayed in an attractive way, but you need to preserve its flavour and consistency.
The correct container is essential to serving up delicious ice cream time after time.
In restaurants, ice cream parlours, and supermarkets the optimum temperature at which ice cream containers for a freezer should be stored is 18°C (0°F) or colder, and the temperature in a supermarket’s freezer case should not be above 12°C (10°F).
With that in mind, it’s vital a storage container can cope with these extremely cold temperatures.
Is it best to store ice cream in a glass or plastic container?
Plastic is affordable and convenient to use, and has a whole raft of benefits that can outweigh glass.
The main thing is that it needs to be the right kind of plastic. If not certified food safe, it can leak chemicals and toxins into your delicious frozen delights.
For that reason, you should always buy ice cream containers form a reputable wholesaler like Venturepak.
While glass has loads of benefits, not least it’s inert and needs no chemical layer between its surface and the foodstuffs being stored, it weighs more and is more likely to break if dropped.
As you know, accidents happen in busy kitchens and the last thing you want is to have shards of glass scattered everywhere.
Pros of storing ice cream in plastic
- Plastic is airtight, which is important when protecting ice cream from freezer burn, and also from absorbing flavours of other products stored in the freezer
- An airtight plastic container acts as a barrier for both moisture and air. Because neither can penetrate it, the quality of ice cream is preserved
- The right kind of plastic is able to cope better with low temperatures
- Ice cream is best stored in a wide, flat plastic container because it will cover a greater surface area and freeze faster as a result
- You can buy plastic containers specifically for the purpose of freezing ice cream
- Labelling, which is vital when it comes to listing ingredients and allergens as well as expiry dates and other relevant information, works better on plastic containers
- Plastic is more affordable! This especially applies to large-scale production where the raw material and manufacturing cost for plastic is way cheaper than glass.
Pros of storing ice cream in glass
- It’s made of only a few ingredients; sand, ash and limestone, and consequently is non-toxic.
- Glass doesn’t react with whatever is contained inside, because no chemicals can leach into it
- You can recycle glass
- Glass containers of certain shapes tend to be easy to scoop from.
Which is better?
Clearly, when it comes to storing ice cream, plastic is the outright winner.
It’s lightweight, costs less than glass, and is more versatile.
Plastic can also withstand low temperatures, maintaining the quality of a product. For restaurants where economy of space is all-important, plastic packaging will also be easily stackable.
You may wish to opt for different sizes and shapes of ice cream container depending on storage dimensions and capacity.
Also, you can talk to us about how we can introduce printing and labelling to make your product unique.
So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with us.
