Ice cream formulation and processing have historically complied with the provisions of the U.S Standards of Identity (SOI) for Frozen Desserts with regard to composition, weight and, specifically, allowable ingredients. Such constraints limit the achievement of classical ice cream processing and sensory properties in products responsive to the marketplace realities of ever-changing consumer attitudes and preferences — whether these be health-, social- or cost-related. As a result, a growing number of products fall outside of the SOI provisions in one or more ways; they are referred to as “non-standardized frozen desserts” (NSFD).
Since NSFD do not conform to the SOI, they cannot be identified by authorized terms such as “ice cream,” “frozen custard,” “French ice cream,” “French custard ice cream” and “sherbet.” Thus, the common practice is to refer to NSFD either as “frozen dairy desserts” (FDD) if the product contains milk ingredient(s) or as “non-dairy frozen desserts” (NDFD).