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Breyers

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Not to be confused with Dreyer's.
For the brand of model horses, see Breyer Animal Creations.
Breyers
Breyers logo
Product typeFrozen dessert
OwnerUnilever
CountryUnited States
Introduced1866; 158 years ago (1866)[1]
MarketsUnited States
Previous ownersKraft
WebsiteBreyers.com

Breyers is a brand of frozen desserts sold in the United States and Canada and owned by Unilever. The company was first founded in 1866 by William A. Breyer who sold his ice cream on his horse and wagon in the streets of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

History

Breyer ice cream truck, circa 1915

In 1866, William A. Breyer began to produce and sell iced cream in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, first from his home, and later via horse and wagon on the streets. Breyer's son Henry, incorporated the business in 1908. The formerly independent Breyer Ice Cream Company was sold to the National Dairy Products Corporation in 1926. National Dairy then changed its name to Kraftco in 1969, and Kraft by 1975. Kraft sold its ice cream brands to Unilever in 1993, while retaining the rights to the name for yogurt products.[2]

Cost-cutting

Prior to 2006,[3] 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,[4] Unilever has reformulated many of its flavors with nontraditional, additive ingredients, significantly changing the taste and texture of their desserts as a result.[3] Following similar practices by several of their competitors, and to the consternation of many former customers,[3] Breyers' list of ingredients has expanded to include thickeners, low-cost sweeteners, food coloring and low-cost additives — including natural addivites such as tara gum[5] and carob bean gum;[6] artificial additives such as maltodextrin and propylene glycol;[7] and common artificially separated and extracted ingredients such as corn syrup, whey, and others.[6][7] 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 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[8] and "Frozen Dessert" in Canada.[9][10]

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.[11]

Marketing

In the 1990s, when Breyers produced all-natural ice cream, the company ran a television advertising campaign in North America featuring a child who attempted to read an ingredients list from another ice cream brand and experienced extreme difficulty pronouncing several listed artificial additives. The child then turned to the Breyers list and quickly rattled off the four ingredients on the label of their vanilla ice cream: milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla.[12]

Confusion with Dreyer's

In the Western U.S. and Texas,[13] Breyers ice cream is sometimes confused with Dreyer's ice cream.[citation needed] While Henry Breyer founded Breyers in 1908 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, William Dreyer and Joseph Edy co-founded their ice cream company, Edy's Grand Ice Cream, in 1928 in Oakland, California. However, the roots of this confusion date to 1953, when "Edy's Grand Ice Cream" changed its name to "Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream". Seeking to eliminate confusion between the two, Dreyer's changed the brand name of its products sold in the home market of Breyers from "Dreyer's Grand" to "Edy's Grand" in 1981.[14] Around that same time Breyers had begun an expansion towards the west coast - the home market of Dreyer's - and by the mid-1980s was distributing ice cream throughout the western U.S. and Texas.[15] Unlike Dreyer's, Breyers kept its brand name nationally, and as a result, both Breyers and Dreyer's can be found on store shelves in the western U.S. and Texas.[13][15]

Products

In the U.S., Breyers products are available in two sizes: 1.5 quart (1.41 liter), and 1 pint (0.47 liter).[16] In Canada it is sold in 1.66 liter containers.

Breyers product lines include:

  • Standard (previously All Natural) - Uses ingredients derived mostly from natural sources.
  • Smooth & Dreamy - Uses mostly all-natural ingredients with half the fat and fewer calories than regular ice cream.
  • Double Churn Fat Free - "Creamy" fat-free ice cream.
  • Double Churn No Sugar Added - "Creamy" ice cream with no sugar added.
  • CarbSmart - A low-carb ice cream product with 4 grams of net carbohydrates per 1/2-cup serving.

Yogurt

Breyers Yogurt was a brand of yogurt, owned by Kraft Foods then by CoolBrands International, a former Canadian frozen foods manufacturer. After CoolBrands ran into financial trouble, it was sold in 2007 to Healthy Food Holdings, an affiliate of Catterton Partners, a private equity firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut.[17]

The yogurt was manufactured under license from Unilever at an upstate New York facility until the licensing agreement was terminated and the Breyers Yogurt line was discontinued in April 2011.[18] Catterton continued to produce YoCrunch yogurt but without the Breyers co-branding until it sold the company in August 2013 to Group Danone.[19][20]

Discontinued flavors and products

  • Breyers Vienetta
  • Breyers Ice Milk

See also

References

  1. ^ Adelberg, Michael. "The Melting of a Great American Brand: Breyers Ice Cream". 2paragraphs.com. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  2. ^ Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream Company History
  3. ^ a b c Breyers Natural Ice Cream and Tara Gum: Unilever’s Response - A Daily Scoop
  4. ^ Unilever to Close Green Bay Office
  5. ^ Breyers Natural Vanilla Ice Cream Ingredients
  6. ^ a b Breyers Extra Creamy Vanilla Ingredients
  7. ^ a b Breyers Oreo Cookies and Cream Chocolate Ingredients
  8. ^ What Happened to Breyer's Ice Cream? - Beach Street News
  9. ^ Can you tell the difference between ice cream and frozen dessert? - The Toronto Star
  10. ^ Comm-oddities: I Scream for Ice Cream
  11. ^ Breyers' Framingham facility closes its doors
  12. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzA_sEd8Tls&t=5s
  13. ^ a b Nestlé's U.S. Ice Cream Distribution Map - IceCream.com
  14. ^ Paul B. Brown & Steve Kichen: "The Class of 1983: Breaking the Barriers," Forbes, Nov 7, 1983, p.168
  15. ^ a b Roderick Royall: "Ice Cream Wars," Baltimore Business Journal, April 28, 1986, p.1
  16. ^ Breyers' Complete Product Line
  17. ^ Healthy Food Holdings to Acquire Breyers Yogurt Business Jan 2, 2007
  18. ^ North Lawrence Dairy Done, Watertown Daily Times, Jan 18, 2011
  19. ^ "Danone acquires YoCrunch, a mix-in toppings specialist, to support continued yogurt growth in the USA". August 2013.
  20. ^ "Danone Buys YoCrunch Yogurt-Topping Maker to Grow in U.S." August 2013.
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