In 2019, Dairy Queen moved its headquarters to Bloomington, Minnesota. There, on two floors
connected by a staircase with ice cream cone-painted walls, is the infrastructure necessary to
perfect new flavors and products. In the office's newly designed test kitchens, QA, and product
development labs, scientists work continually on quality assurance and menu development.
How Dairy Queen's soft serve is made is a tightly kept secret. Presumably, along with
its labs, Dairy Queen also moved the safe deposit box that holds the secret recipe to
Dairy Queen's famous soft serve to Bloomington. We do know what's in it, though.
But before we dive into the details, let's get one thing out of the way. It's not actually
ice cream. Yes, it's cold, creamy, sugary, and delicious. But according to the FDA, ice
cream has to have at least 10 percent milk fat. Dairy Queen's soft serve has just 5 percent.
Why? According to Forbes, the 5 percent fat content makes the ice cream perfect for serving
at its signature temperature, 18 degrees. But Dairy Queen's soft serve recipe includes
more surprising ingredients.
"Son, whenever we want a treat we say mooooo. In fact, everybody does."
"That's because the greatest genuine milk treat is Dairy Queen moo."
It's worth noting that 40 percent of a Dairy Queen soft serve is air. But that's not abnormal.
According to the American Chemical Society, anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of any ice
cream is. What's in the other 60 percent?
Dairy Queen's recipe, as listed on its website, is full of FDA-approved, but worrying ingredients.
Take the mono and diglycerides, which ensure smooth texture. According to Science Direct,
these can cause irritation in high concentrations and must be carefully controlled in food products.
Then there's the guar gum that prevents ice crystal growth in soft serve. When used in
other manufacturing processes, guar gum has been linked to asthma, abdominal pain, flatulence,
diarrhea, and cramps.
Dairy Queen also lists Polysorbate 80 as an ingredient. Polysorbate 80, which binds ice
cream together, has been linked to cancer and adverse reproductive effects in animals,
although no human data has been found.
Finally, Dairy Queen's soft serve includes carrageenan, an FDA-approved carbohydrate
derived from red seaweed. Carrageenan gives your soft serve the thickness you crave. Unfortunately,
similarly to Polysorbate 80, it's linked to inflammation, gut irritation, and cancer in
animals.
When you take a bite of your favorite version of Dairy Queen soft serve, you might be serving
yourself an extra helping of dirt, sour milk, or cockroaches. Between 2015 to 2019, Dairy
Queens across the country made local and national headlines for consistently violating health
and safety regulations.
In 2015, a Dairy Queen in Nogales, Arizona was shut down when local health authorities
found cockroaches in the kitchen and expired milk being used for milkshakes. In 2016, inspectors
shut down a Dairy Queen in Tampa, Florida after finding cockroaches in the soft-serve
ice cream machine and under the Blizzard machine.
In 2019, health inspectors in Richmond, Virginia found dead flies on a prep table and pink
and black mold in the ice machine at a local Dairy Queen. In Cape Coral, Florida, inspectors
closed a local Dairy Queen for three days after finding roaches. Suffice to say, if
you're planning a trip to Dairy Queen any time soon, maybe check that their food safety
certificate is up to date.
Besides an extra helping of dirt, if you indulge in a trip to Dairy Queen, you may be in for
more empty calories than you're bargaining for. Yes, a vanilla kids cone has a manageable
170 calories, but be let's be real. Who goes to Dairy Queen for a kiddie cone?
The hard truth is that your favorite Dairy Queen options may not be so friendly on anyone
following a 2,000 calorie daily diet. A Dreamsicle Dipped Cone? That will be 650 calories. A
large Peanut Butter Sundae? That's 780 down the drain. Dairy Queen's new, Tiramisu Cake Shake?
Dairy Queen discloses that its large version of this dreamy treat has 810 calories. Or
perhaps you're dying to try the Frosted Animal Cookie Blizzard? A large will cost you 1,310
calories. But the Royal Reese Brownie Blizzard? We hate to break it to you, but according
to Dairy Queen, that'll be a whopping 1,490 calories.
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