Twenty-eight grams of sugar per one hundred grams of product. This is what the stick with the most sugar contains among the eight chocolate-covered creminis that Il Salvagente compared in the test published in the June issue. For comparison, the World Health Organization sets a child’s daily requirement of free sugars at around 20 grams. Just one ice cream, and the threshold is already almost all consumed. The consumer magazine analyzed the products on three fronts: sugars, type of milk used and additives. The picture that emerges is chiaroscuro, because none of the eight sticks is completely saved and none deserves an absolute failure.
Sugars: the threshold that can be reached with a single stick
The values fluctuate between 21 and 28 grams per 100 grams. Translated into practice, more or less the weight of a single ice cream. The lowest content is recorded by Cremino Algida, stopped at 21 grams; the highest is that of the Coop brand stick, which reaches 28. The difference does not seem negligible, because on a snack that children, especially in the summer, consume several times a week, seven extra grams of sugar change the daily bill.
Mono and diglycerides in all eight products
The element that the entire sample has in common are the mono and diglycerides of fatty acids, the additive E471 used as an emulsifier. According to the evidence collected by Salvagente, a high consumption of these substances is linked to a worse assimilation of essential fatty acids, an increase in the volume of the liver and kidneys and possible obstacles to growth in children. Almost all ice creams contain carob seed flour, the carob gum indicated on the label as E410. It is worth being precise on this point, since in the re-evaluation opinion EFSA observed that infants and young children who consume these foods could show greater susceptibility to the gastrointestinal effects of carob gum compared to healthy peers. The effects reported, in a second opinion in 2023, concern diarrhea, frequent loose stools and flatulence, and refer above all to the use of the additive in anti-regurgitation formulas.
The report card: from Pepino to Magnum
The highest score of the test goes to Pepino Il Pinguino, which closes with 7.7. The lowest goes to the Magnum Classic, stuck at 3.9. Two ingredients weigh on the judgment of the Magnum: glucose-fructose syrup and carrageenan, the E407 thickener. Precisely on carrageenan it is better not to bet on the mistake of forcing the data. The study cited is the French NutriNet-Santé cohort, published in PLOS Medicine in February 2024 and also signed by researchers from the Sorbonne. The authors found that higher consumption of carrageenans and mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids was associated with a higher risk of overall, breast, and prostate cancer. However, the same work specifies a detail that is often lost in the summary, namely that no association has been detected between emulsifiers and the risk of colorectal cancer. These remain observational data, which the researchers themselves invite to confirm on other populations.
No food to demonize
Doctor Italo Pretelli of the Bambino Gesù hospital, interviewed in the issue, also intervenes on this point: no food should be put on the index at all. However, there remains the possibility of knowingly choosing what ends up in the snack basket. The complete test, with the ratings on all eight sticks, can be found in the June issue of Salvagente, available digitally for subscribers.
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