Is Snow Ice Cream Safe to Eat?
Like snow, but not cold weather?
There's a recipe for that.
Bring snow indoors with snow ice cream.
Snow ice cream is growing in popularity, but is it safe to eat?
This winter has had no shortage of snow or snow days in West Michigan. That makes a perfect combination for snow ice cream.
Snow ice cream is easy to make. Snow, milk or cream, and vanilla with a topping or two added.
It's a fun snow day activity for kids, but is it safe?
I asked Jennifer Holton, director of communications at the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, about snow ice cream.
She said:
The old adage 'don't eat yellow snow' comes to mind. Snow ice cream is a fun and creative way to engage kids in science and cooking. While the food safety risk is minimal, as always, a little common sense should be applied when making it.
"
I like those words: common sense.
Brigham Young University has researched snow. They think snow ice cream is fine, as long as the snow is fresh:
"If it's fresh snow, I can't imagine that there would be anything wrong with it, unless it's come into contact with something," said Kevin Brown, director of the Division of Drinking Water in Utah.
Dr. Jeffrey Matthews of Weather Underground offers another opinion:
"It depends on how much contamination is in the air that the snow falls in. If you are in a heavily polluted city, odds are the snow has lots of contaminants in it from things like auto exhaust and factory emissions. That snow is not too healthy to eat. In rural or suburban areas, eating a little snow probably wouldn't hurt," said Masters.
Here are some recipes for snow ice cream:
I haven't had snow ice cream, but I would give it a try.
It seems there's enough snow to go around this winter.
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