The inside scoop! Makers of a new fat-free ice cream made using a plant-based oil claim it tastes 99.5% the same as the real thing
- Swedish company Lub Foods confident it’s recreated ice cream’s creamy texture
- Uses epogee fat, known as EPG, a plant-based oil, to replace traditional fat
- Spent years making hundreds of tweaks to its recipe to ensure it tastes authentic
A new ice cream made using a plant-based oil instead of traditional fat tastes 99.5 per cent the same as the real thing, according to its creators.
Swedish company Lub Foods is confident it’s recreated the treat’s creamy flavour and texture by using epogee fat, known as EPG.
For each unit of fat, the plant-based oil can cut up to 92 per cent of calories thanks to its molecular structure which our digestive enzymes are unable to break down, meaning barely any is absorbed by the body, reports The Times.
‘Our trick has been making epogee fat taste like dairy,’ explained Niclas Luthman, co-founder of Lub Foods.
Swedish company Lub Foods is confident it’s recreated the treat’s creamy flavour and texture by using epogee fat, known as EPG. The ice cream was launched under the subsidiary Nick’s Foods last year
He added that while many brands which make sugar and fat-free ice cream struggle with getting the right texture, Lub Foods has spent years making hundreds of tweaks to its recipe to ensure it tastes authentic.
It is now confident its consistency and flavours, which includes variations of ‘Choklad’ (chocolate), Swedish Mint chip, Karamell Swirl, Strawbar Swirl and Peanot Butter Cup, are ‘99.5 per cent perfect’.
The ice cream was launched under the subsidiary Nick’s Foods last year, and sales in the US hit £7.2million [$10 million].
The brand has also seen success in its native Sweden; Mr Luthman, who co-founded Lub Foods in 2014, told how within six months of launching, they’d won one per cent of the Swedish ice-cream market.
The ice cream is made using a plant-based oil instead of traditional fat, and its creators claim it tastes 99.5 per cent the same as the real thing
‘Our chairman said not to bother because we wouldn’t be able to compete with the likes of Unilever,’ he recalled. ‘I thought, “I’m going to show you”.’
Lub Foods offer a range of sugar-free snacks, chocolate and drinks as well as ice-cream; Mr Luthman set it up after being diagnosed with pre-diabetes.
Of all the ice cream flavours, he said vanilla was the trickiest one to refine due to it being so subtle.
‘There is nowhere to hide,’ Mr Luthman told the publication. ‘You can cover the taste of anything with caramel or mint flavour but vanilla is hard.’
While it’s proving a hit overseas, it’s yet to hit the shelves in Britain because EPG hasn’t been approved by The European Food Safety Authority, which regulated food in the UK until this year.
Mr Luthman acknowledged that the EU process is ‘very slow’ at approving things but hopes the ice cream will get the green light within two years.
Nick’s ice cream has attracted dozens of five star reviews on its website, with many remarking on how similar it tastes to the real thing.
Nick’s ice cream has attracted dozens of five star reviews on its website, with many remarking on how similar it tastes to the real thing
One wrote of its Butter Pekan flavour – a rich, mapley ice cream with bits of nuts: ‘Hard to tell it was healthy. SO impressed with the buttery flavor and loaded with pecan pieces, very impressive!!’
Another remarked: ‘This has all the goodness including that silky “mouth feel” of full fat ice cream without the guilt!’
And one said they’d tried five flavours and all were ‘wonderful’, adding: ‘Butter pecan – tastes like full calorie!!! Yummy.’