OUR HISTORY

AN AMERICAN CLASSIC SINCE 1866

A Rich History
william_breyer
In 1866, as America recovered from the Civil War, William A. Breyer of Philadelphia hand-cranked his first gallon of ice cream. It was a special ice cream consisting of rich cream, pure cane sugar, fresh fruits, nuts and other flavors – some of the very same ingredients used today. He sold it to his neighbors with the promise that his ice cream was made with the finest ingredients. Word spread quickly, and Breyers® Ice Cream was soon declared Philadelphia’s best.

breyers_retail_cartBreyer opened his first retail ice cream shop in 1882. Within a short time he and his family opened four more shops. Breyer continued to make all of the ice cream in the back of one of the shops, cranking it by hand and delivering it with his horse-drawn wagon.

In 1896, 30 years after Breyer made his first gallon of ice cream, his family set up its first wholesale manufacturing plant. Breyer’s son, Henry, incorporated the business in 1908 and continued his father’s commitment to produce high quality ice cream.

By 1918, Breyers® Ice Cream Company was producing more than a million gallons of ice cream a year and shipping it to New York City and Staten Island, New York; Newark, New Jersey; and Washington, D.C. In 1926, Breyers® Ice Cream Company became a division of the National Dairy Products Corporation (NDPC), a growing organization of well-known brands.

In 1993, Unilever bought Breyers® Ice Creamfrom Kraft and made it part of the Gold Bond-Good Humor Ice Cream Company in Green Bay, Wisconsin, renaming the company the Good Humor-Breyers® Ice Cream Company. Today, Unilever continues to own and manage Breyers® and is based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.  
 

Frequently Asked Questions

Have a question about Breyers® products? Please check out the following frequently asked questions for information about our delicious desserts.  If you don't see an answer to your question here, Ask Breyers.

  

1) Where can I get coupons for Breyers products?

 

Occasionally we offer coupons and samples on our website and Facebook page. In addition, we invite you to sign up at MakingLifeBetter.com to receive other member’s only benefits and special offers for a variety of Unilever brands such as Breyers, Dove®, Lipton®, Suave® and many more.

 

2) I can’t find my favorite Breyers product at my local grocer. How can I find the nearest retail location?

 

We apologize for the difficulty you are having locating a Breyers product. Please visit Breyers' Store Locator to determine the nearest store that sells it! If the flavor you are looking for isn't listed, we're sorry but it may have been discontinued.

 

3) Do your products contain allergens or gluten?

 

Some Breyers products do contain allergens, including gluten. However, most of our ice creams and frozen dairy desserts are naturally gluten free. We are currently updating our packaging to make it easy for you to identify all of our naturally gluten free variants. It is our policy that when any of the eight most common allergens (milk, eggs, fish, wheat, tree nuts, peanuts, soybeans and crustaceans) occur in any of our products they will be listed inside the ingredient statement in plain language.

 

4) What is a Frozen Dairy Dessert?

 

Frozen Dairy Dessert products are made with many of the same high-quality ingredients that are commonly found in Ice Cream – like fresh milk, cream and sugar –  and offer a great taste and even smoother texture. According to the FDA, in order for a product to be labeled ice cream, it needs to meet two key requirements:

·         Not less than 10% dairy fat

·         A percentage of overrun that results in a finished product weighing more than 4.5 pounds per gallon

Anything that does not meet both of those requirements is not considered ice cream.

 

5) Why did Breyers make the change to Frozen Dairy Dessert?

 

Our consumers are at the center of every recipe decision we make. We work hard to understand what people want most and work to give them the best possible product experience. People have told us they have various flavor or texture preferences. For example, some tell us that they want a smoother texture, which is what we’re able to deliver with our Frozen Dairy Dessert products.

 

6) Does Frozen Dairy Dessert taste different than Ice Cream?

 

We have conducted several national taste tests across different flavor profiles to determine how our Frozen Dairy Dessert products perform against ice cream on important product attributes. In these side by side taste tests, our fans told us they liked the new recipe just as much as the original.

 

The ultimate measure of consumer feedback is whether our consumers are purchasing the product. Breyers Blasts!, which has a Frozen Dairy Dessert standard of identity, is the most popular and fastest-growing segment of our business.

 

7) Are there nutritional benefits to Frozen Dairy Dessert?

 

Frozen Dairy Dessert tends to have less fat than ice cream.

 

8) Are there Breyers flavors that are not Frozen Dairy Dessert?

 

Yes, Breyers offers a wide range of products to meet the different taste, nutritional, and value needs of consumers. Breyers continues to offer many flavors of ice cream, including Natural Vanilla, Natural Strawberry, Chocolate, Mint Chocolate Chip and Coffee.

 

9) What is the packaging difference between Ice Cream and Frozen Dairy Dessert?

 

These products follow all Legal & Regulatory requirements for packaging, and thus claim Frozen Dairy Dessert on the front of pack. Additionally, the ingredient list and nutritional information is updated to reflect changes.

 

10) Does the price of Frozen Dairy Dessert products differ from that of Ice Cream?

 

The suggested retail price for Frozen Dairy Dessert varieties will be consistent with the current Ice Cream products.

 

11) What does Breyers mean when they say that Frozen Dairy Dessert is blended in a new way? 

 

To manufacture our Frozen Dairy Dessert varieties, we use a new manufacturing technique that allows us to more effectively break down molecules of dairy fat, and more evenly distribute them throughout the product to deliver a smoother texture with less milk fat solids.