Ice cream is made by stirring, while freezing, a pasteurized mix of one or more dairy ingredients—milk, concentrated fat-free milk, cream and condensed milk—with added sweetening agents, flavorings, stabilizers, emulsifiers, and optional egg or egg yolk solids or other ingredients.

Federal standards require ice cream to contain a minimum of 10% milkfat (about 7 grams of fat per half-cup serving) and 20% total milk solids by weight. Some premium ice creams contain 16% milkfat. Added flavoring must be identified on the label as naturally flavored (i.e., raspberry ice cream) or artificially flavored (i.e., raspberry-flavored ice cream or artificially flavored raspberry ice cream).

Varieties
Frozen custard (French ice cream, French custard ice cream) is similar to ice cream but contains a higher content of egg yolk solids.

Reduced-fat ice cream, lowfat ice cream, light ice cream and fat-free ice cream all contain less fat per serving (1/2 cup) than regular (full-fat) ice cream. Reduced-fat ice cream contains at least 25% less fat than the original product. Lowfat ice cream contains 3 grams or less of fat per serving. Light ice cream contains at least 50% less fat, and fat-free ice cream contains less than 0.5 grams of fat per serving.

Sherbet contains 1% to 2% milkfat and 2% to 5% total milk solids. Water, flavoring (e.g., fruit, chocolate, spices), sweetener and stabilizers are added. Sherbet has more sugar than ice cream.

Frozen yogurt is made by freezing a mixture of pasteurized milk (with or without other milk products), flavorings, seasonings, stabilizers, emulsifiers and lactic acid cultures. Because there are no specific standards for frozen yogurt, its ingredients and characteristics can vary. Frozen yogurt is pasteurized before freezing so it generally does not contain live, active cultures like many unfrozen yogurts do. Nonfat, lowfat and full-fat varieties of frozen yogurt are available. Frozen yogurt may be soft (as in cones or sundaes) or hard-frozen.

Nutritional information
Ice cream and frozen yogurt provide some high-quality protein, riboflavin (B2), calcium and modest amounts of other vitamins and minerals. The calorie and fat contents of these dairy foods vary, depending on the type of milk used and the addition of cream, egg yolk solids or sweetening agents.