Our son has had food allergy to certain kinds of food ever since he was a baby.
One of food he is allergic to is cow’s milk.
When he was a baby, he was so sensitive that his skin would flair up whenever he just touches anything that contained milk.
Now he is a school-age child, he has grown a lot stronger against dairy products (after actively trying treatment at a hospital), and he can now take some contamination-level cow’s milk in his food.
But still, he avoids eating any kind of food that contains raw-milk or cream – like typical ice creams.
So when it comes to desert like ice cream, I am always looking out for some dairy-free options for my son with dairy-allergy.
Dairy-Free Ice Cream Range in New Zealand!
So I was delighted when I went to my local countdown and found that they had new products on the ice cream shelf.
And those were all dairy-free!!
Photo below is a section of ice cream shelf dedicated for specialized, dairy-free ice cream range.
All these ice creams in above photo are dairy-free!
While some have writing “may contain trace of....”, my dairy-allergic son was able to eat them without any problem.
Awesome SO GOOD brand ice creams!
On the left of the phot is a product named “So Good Almond” from the famous SO GOOD brand that sells variety of soy-milk and related product.
These SO GOOD brand ice creams are made from mainly soy milk, instead of cow’s milk.
The So good almond ice cream has chocolate flavor, and includes some almond flakes that adds crunchy texture and nutty taste to it.
There are other kind of ice creams from SO GOOD brand, including vanilla favored soy ice cream and more recently, caramel-flavored soy ice cream.
A variety of Like Licks ice creams!
Next to the SO GOOD ice cream is the “like licks” brand ice cream range.
They come in variety of flavors too; Almond & raspberry, Oat & chocolate, Soy Hokey pokey.
Hokey Pokey!! Cannot talk about ice creams in New Zealand without Hokey Pokey!
So my son was so happy when I bought this Hokey Pokey flavor ice cream that he could eat! Thank you Like Licks!
Like Licks Ice Cream... Yum
So here is Almond & Raspberry flavor....
And here is the Soy & Hokey pokey!!
With this much variation of ice cream flavors available in dairy-free range, children with food allergy to cow’s milk now has a plenty of options for their ice creams in summer.
If you buy several kinds of ice creams, you could hold a mini-ice cream party or ice-cream shop at home!
The only problem is that they are quite bit more expensive than regular ice cream made from cow’s milk.
Small container (~500g) cost 8 dollars and up... (and on special!)
But I remember days when these dairy-free products were difficult to find on market. My son could not enjoy any commercial desert.
So even if they are a bit pricy, I still appreciate the fact there are now so many kinds of dairy-free ice creams available from just a local supermarket.
Let’s Buy Some Ice Cream Cones too!
Well, ice creams on cones have something special about them, don’t they?
So let’s pickup some ice cream cones too...
And they are cheap, compared to the ice cream themselves.
You can also pickup some 100s&1000s from baking section of supermarket, to sprinkle on top of ice cream to add a special touch.
By putting three different flavored dairy-free ice creams together with cone...
Woooow, awesome, isn’t it?
This will surely satisfy anyone who love ice cream but cannot have dairy-products!
The above ice cream combo sure made my son’s day special.
Check the Ingredients Carefully
Many of dairy-free ice creams use almond, soy, or coconut milk as a main ingredient to replace cow’s milk.
So if you or someone is allergic to one of above product, unfortunately you would not be able to eat them.
You should also carefully examine the ingredient label on the ice cream package, to make sure you know what ingredients are in the ice cream.
Some people are not very fond of soy-flavor or coconut-flavor, although they can eat them.
My son is not so much of a fan of coconut-milk flavor, although he loves soy milk.
So he was happy with soy-based ice creams from SO GOOD brand, but did not like some of coconut-based ice creams.
My experience so far is that, chocolate-flavored ice creams are easier to eat than vanilla flavored ice creams, as chocolate flavor masks the characteristic taste of either soy or coconut in the dairy-free ice cream.
So our usual first pick of dairy-free ice cream that we never tried before, is chocolate flavor.
So that’s what we found in our local supermarket for our with food-allergy.
I hope in the future, even more of this kind of dairy-free, or XXXX-free products become available that people with food allergies can enjoy with other people.
