Why can't a freezer keep ice cream frozen?

[Euphoriet]

Why would a freezer keep ice hard and cold.. while it can't keep ice cream

 

[Dooga Blackrazor]

I have very vague Chemistry knowledge. I'll give you something though until one of the brilliant people on the forums can more accurately explain it.

Different things have different freezing points. These freezing points are based on what they are made of and other things. I'm guessing the thickness of the Ice Cream is one of the reasons it doesn't keep.

 

[Evo]

Dooga, you're close. It's not the thickness, but the ingredients in ice cream, the fat, the sugar, etc...

 

[Euphoriet]

i always thought the reason why water was a great habitat was because it changed temps. slowly (took more energy to do it then on most substances)... =-P i guess it makes sense that strawberry ice cream with jugar is harder to freeze
thanks

 

[Jenn_ucsb]

Ok, so what's up with ice cream (or soy ice cream as the case may be) being all funky after it melts and then is re-frozen? It gets hard and icy and yucky. It's still the same ingredients, but it just doesn't freeze the same.

 

[Monique]

Icecream is a colloid, a mixture of water and fat. The fat in it stops it from freezing, that's why fat-free ice-cream doesn't really exist, and the ones who are low on fat aren't as creamy/tasty. The reason it becomes yucky after refreezing is that the two phases have started to separate. I wouldn't refreeze molten icecream anyway, bacteria love it and there is a chance you might get sick if you leave it out too long a second time.