Visitors to Graeter's would spy numerous somewhat peculiar-looking stainless-steel stations, distributed across four and a half rows, housing stainless-steel buckets. These station-and-bucket combinations are vat freezers, or modernized French Pots, and they are the main reason the plant employs so many people. Graeter's has relied on the labor-intensive French Pot process since the company's founding almost 150 years ago.

This photo gallery contains additional, unpublished photos of dairy processing facilities featured in Dairy Foods magazine. To view more Behind the Scenes galleries go to our archives page!

Cedar Crest Ice Cream makes an impressive amount of ice cream in its 45,408-square-foot facility in Manitowoc, Wis. The plant currently produces approximately 26 million pounds of product annually. The company uses the space wisely and continues to upgrade equipment and technology as product demand increases.

This photo gallery contains additional, unpublished photos of dairy processing facilities featured in Dairy Foods magazine. To view more Behind the Scenes galleries go to our archives page!

A slew of new ice cream and frozen novelties were introduced this year from Unilever brands like Magnum, Popsicle, Good Humor, Klondike, plus Tillamook and more. In our continued celebration of National Ice Cream Month, we’ve gathered 12 of our favorite ice cream novelties and other frozen treats.

Click through the slideshow to learn more, and check back at the end of the month when we discuss what the hottest ice cream flavor trends are. 

July is National Ice Cream Month and we’re continuing the celebration by highlighting some of our favorite new ice cream products and new ice cream flavors.

Ice cream companies are going far beyond the standard vanilla and chocolate flavors, new flavor innovations include cinnamon horchata, blueberry passion fruit and chocolate mascarpone. 

Click through the slideshow to learn more and check back each week this month for more ice cream news. 

Carvel, Atlanta, has new ice cream products and promotions in time for National Ice Cream Month. From June 1 through September 13, customers can visit participating Carvel shoppes for new Reese’s Peanut Butter soft ice cream and other Reese’s Peanut Butter ice cream desserts, including:

• Hand-Scooped Reese’s ice cream with swirls of Reese’s peanut butter sauce, chocolate and chopped Reese’s peanut butter cups.
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Sundae Dasher featuring Reese’s Peanut Butter ice cream on top of a layer of peanut butter sauce, mixed with Reese’s peanut butter cups and topped with a layer of fudge and whipped cream.
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Shake made with fresh Reese’s Peanut Butter soft ice cream.
• Flying Saucers made with fresh Reese’s Peanut Butter soft ice cream between two chocolate crackers.
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Hidden Treasure Cone made with Reese’s Peanut ice cream dipped in Carvel chocolate Bonnet. It features chunks of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups inside the cone.

On Sunday, July 19, Carvel will also be having a buy one get one free offer on any size and any flavor of soft-serve cones all day long at any Carvel shoppe. 

The company had its Free Cone Day on April 30, where customers were also encouraged to help raise money for the American Red Cross. Throughout the day, Carvel offered a $2 coupon book worth more than $20 in savings. All proceeds from sales of the coupon books went toward a $20,000 donation to support the organization’s disaster relief efforts. This year, Carvel surpassed $125,000 in total contributions to the American Red Cross since 2012. Mark your calendars for the company’s Free Cone Day next year on April 30.

Click through this slideshow to see where you can get free cones throughout the year, plus learn about other ice cream promotions.