Paco Magsaysay: ‘There is a science to making ice cream’

MANILA, Philippines - Francisco “Paco” Magsaysay, founder and proprietor of the two-year-old brand Carmen’s Best Ice Cream, is all set to make his best even better.

Magsaysay has just completed the Pennsylvania State University College of Agricultural Sciences’ Ice Cream Short Course, a must-attend program even for people from well-known international brands. In addition to learning the latest scientific developments in ice cream making, he also came back with the program’s coveted Keeney Award.

Named after Phil Keeney, professor emeritus in food science at Penn State who served as director of the course from 1953 until his retirement in 1985, the annual award is given to one student in the course that shows the most potential to succeed in the highly competitive business.

Magsaysay says that what he learned from the short course has brought his Carmen’s Best — already a proven winner among ice cream lovers — to an even higher level. He believes the ice cream they produce now “is a perfectly balanced product.”

The weeklong course, according to him, “has helped me come up with a better product. Production, freezing and handling have been adjusted (for) the best possible outcome.”

Despite the course’s  “age” (it has been offered for the last 121 years), Magsaysay says it keeps ice cream makers updated on the technology and techniques so that even such major global brands as Baskin-Robbins and Ben and Jerry’s feel the need to send their people to the annual program.

While ice cream makers may have mastered the art of developing unique and exciting flavors, Magsaysay says the Penn course is all about the “science” of the dairy product

“The course (covers almost every aspect of the process, including) milk composition, ice cream composition, dairy ingredients, mix calculations, sugars and sweeteners, allergens, mix processing, novelties, principles of refrigeration, ice cream freezing, ice cream physics, stabilizers and emulsifiers, ice cream hardening, sensory evaluation of ice cream, chocolate, ice cream flavors, vanilla, labeling, microbiology, sanitation, soft serve, sherbets and water ices,” he says.

He notes that many people, for instance, just add ingredients into a vanilla ice cream without understanding how the various ingredients will affect the end product, temperature and so on.

There is a science to making ice cream, he stresses, and that is what participants in the Penn State course learn. The program “pretty much covers every aspect of ice cream production,” he points out.

Aside from representatives of already well-known brands, Magsaysay says entrepreneurs and small and medium ice cream manufacturers like himself also attended the class.  Many were also simply trying to decide if they should go into ice cream production.

In fact, he says, the people behind Ben and Jerry’s took the course before launching their ice cream business.

Keeney still helps handle the short ice cream program, Magsaysay adds.

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For information on Carmen’s Best and where it is available, visit www.carmensbest.com.