Here's where you'll find the facts and answers to all the Streets Ice Cream you might have been thinking about. If you have any further questions don't hesitate to contact us.

Are Street's products nut/peanut free?

We cannot guarantee any Streets products to be peanut free as some lines manufacture products containing peanuts or other nuts. Full details of ingredients and allergen statements are provided on the ingredients list of every pack.

My ice cream does not have that smooth texture but is "icy" or "coarse"

Properly handled and stored during all phases of distribution from manufacture to consumer, ice cream will retain it's smooth creamy texture, quality and enjoyable taste. If however, ice cream is allowed to partially thaw and refreeze, air in the product will be lost. This can cause the ice cream to shrink, giving the appearance of being under-filled or changing shape. Also a process known as re-crystallisation will occur when ice cream is re-frozen after partially melting. When this happens new larger ice crystals can form resulting in a coarse, gritty or chalky texture.

This partial refreezing my occur when product is left out of the freezer, particularly on hot days (often when a ice cream is most wanted!). So we recommend when buying ice cream purchase the product last and transport home in a chiller or freezer bag - particularly on those hot days.

What is Halal Gelatine?

The gelatin in Streets Ice Cream products is derived from Beef and is Halal.
The supplier of the gelatin is Halal accredited however our factory is not.

Where do all the Ice Cream Sticks come from?

Locally produced Paddle pop sticks and also Magnum sticks are made from Hooped Pinewood. Hooped Pine is a native Australian tree. The Hoop Pine Wood for our sticks are plantation trees (trees which have been planted specifically for harvesting for stick making), sourced from a local sustainable forest/source. Our suppliers do not use native (old) growth forest trees - this is against Company policy.

Ice cream can make you happy, is this true?

Research comissioned by Unilever and carried out by the UK Institute of Psychiatry has discovered that ice cream actually 'lights up' the brain's pleasure zones. It appears from clinical trials that just one spoonful of ice cream brings a smile to the happy areas of the brain.

The willing participants in the study were asked to eat vanilla ice cream before having an MRI - magnetic resonance imaging - scan to see which parts of the brain are activated when people eat it. MRI scans detect regions in the brain affected by changes in the levels of blood oxygenation.

The results of the scans found that ice cream has an immediate effect on these pleasure zones. Previous research had found out that when people are really enjoying themselves these areas are activated. Unilever commissioned the research, which was carried out at the centre for Neuroimaging Sciences in London.

While ice cream may make you happy just remember, 'variety in moderation' is an important part of eating a healthy diet and this allows you to enjoy a wide variety of foods, including ones that make you feel good. Rather than giving up your favourite foods, try smaller portions or eating them just once in a while.

When was Streets Paddle Pop first sold?

The first recorded sales of Paddle Pop were in 1953 making Streets Paddle Pop one of the longest surviving brands in the Australian food market. Continued development of the product has resulted in the product we have today. Today's Streets Paddle Pop contains no artificial colours or flavours, is 95% fat free and provides the goodness of calcium. One Streets Paddle Pop Moo will provide 1/3rd of a child's daily calcium needs.

Emulsifier 471 is it Vegetable based?

The emulsifier that is used in all Streets products is Vegetable based (See more about ingredients).

More questions about ingredients? - read on

The main ingredients of ice cream are milk and cream, includes milk fat, skim milk, buttermilk, cream and milk. Our other ingredients are cane sugar and glucose syrup. Small, but significant ingredients are vegetable gums, gelatin, emulsifiers, colours and flavours. Other ingredients in selected products are chocolate, nuts, fruit and perhaps even confectionery such as Bubble'O Bill's nose.

Small proportions of Stabilizers and Emulsifiers are added to ice cream (typically no more than 1%). Emulsifiers for example are added to ice cream to ensure a smooth texture. The emulsifier used in Streets ice cream is vegetable based.

Artificial free flavours are added. Alcohol is an important component of many flavours - especially natural flavours. It is used to extract the flavour components from various natural ingredients. For example, vanilla flavour from vanilla beans, or strawberry flavours from strawberries. As a result, there is always some alcohol present in these flavours when they are added to ice cream. Much of this alcohol would be evaporated during processing, but a small amount may remain. However, the level of alcohol in the final product is extremely low (much less than 0.1%). In some cases there are alternative flavours we could use, and where applicable we do. However, in the majority of cases we tend to use the alcohol based material for the following reasons:

1. They are usually natural flavours.
2. They have a far superior flavour delivery and are of higher quality.
3. There is no significant reason for not using them. Most, if not all, of our products will have these small levels of alcohol in them.

Where are Streets products made?

The majority of Streets Ice Creams are made in Australia at our manufacturing site at Minto in NSW. A small range of water ice products are imported from China from our Unilever Factory. This is due to a difference in technology and the equipment available. All Streets products, regardless of the origin, are produced under Streets strict quality assurance guidelines. Unilever is a global company and sets high standards for all of their sites worldwide. As Streets is a growing company we like to invent new and improved products at a reasonable price and in most cases we can do this in the Australian Factory. On the odd occasion we may have to source products from overseas.

The earliest documented usage of an ice cream type of product is from China around 1000BC. For centuries people from the China and Middle East have enjoyed a delicacy we know as dessert.

Marco Polo is believed to have brought the idea back to Italy, but it wasn't until 1533 that our European ancestors sampled the sensation of "frozen cream".

The concept was taken up by inventive French chefs and developed from essentially a frozen fruit ice to dairy based ices, which were akin to today's ice cream products.

The first commercial ice cream factory opened in Baltimore in 1851, heralding the end of ice cream being a luxury food available to only a few. In Australia the first commercial ice cream was produced in 1907.

Between WWI and WWII, Edwin ('Ted') Street with the help of his wife and brother laid the foundations (in Corrimal, NSW) for what would ultimately become Australia's biggest and best-known ice cream manufacturer. Streets ice cream was originally made in the back shed by Ted. He would then sell these to neighbours along with sweets, cakes and lemonade. Popularity grew and he soon used a cart, then a one-horse- power motorbike to sell Streets ice cream. It continued to grow and today Streets ice cream is sold throughout Australia and New Zealand with well known brands such as Magnum, Paddle Pop and Blue Ribbon.

A significant history:

While the recipes and ingredients used by different manufacturers for making ice cream may vary, the method used is basically the same.

Essentially, ice cream is a mix of various milk products and other foods. The main ingredients of ice cream are milk and cream, cane sugar and glucose syrup. Small quantities of other ingredients such as gelatine, flavours and colours may be added. Other key ingredients in selected products include chocolate, nuts, fruit preparations and various types of confectionery.

Once the basic ingredients have passed the required quality tests, they are combined into an ice cream mix, which is then pasteurized and homogenised. Pasteurization ensures there is no chance of harmful bacteria present. Homogenization ensures the ingredients in the mix are converted into a smooth, creamy blend ready for whipping and freezing.

Following homogenization, the blend is simultaneously whipped and frozen in a continuous ice cream freezer. During this process, the desired proportion of air is introduced to ensure the ice cream will be smooth and creamy. At this stage the product has a texture resembling whipped cream, allowing it to be packed into tubs, formed into shapes or filled into cones or moulds. Other key ingredients such as chocolate can be added or the ice cream shape coated.

Once packed, the product is then hardened by cooling to at least at minus 25° Celcius and then held in frozen bulk storage ready for delivery to distribution centres direct to retail stores. The rapid, continuous freezing operation during manufacture results in formation of very minute ice crystals and a smoother textured ice cream.