Boost dessert sales with frozen sweets

Frozen treats are among the most appealing and easy-to-sell items in college and university foodservice, or anywhere else where food is served.

It’s easy to see why: The average American polishes off nearly 22 pounds of ice cream annually, according to the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA). For operators, this represents a sweet, business-building opportunity.

For example, frozen desserts certainly have a strong appeal at the University of Colorado Boulder, which serves about 15,000 meals per day on campus. “If I don’t put out a cheesecake for dessert, I don’t hear too much about it,” says Paul Houle, CEC, associate director of campus dining services at Colorado. “But if the soft-serve machine goes down, I hear a lot about it.”

Vanilla remains the most popular ice cream flavor among Americans, followed by chocolate chip mint and cookies and cream, according to IDFA data. At Colorado, flavor offerings cover a wide spectrum of tastes. Students walk up to a self-service machine dispensing vanilla and chocolate soft-serve and move on to a toppings bar, or they can request hand-scooped hard-pack ice cream in varied flavors.

And even with frozen treats, students are looking for exciting flavors. Green tea ice cream is the top-selling hard-pack flavor, with chocolate chip, cookies and cream and Heath Bar next in popularity. “That leads me to think that when people want vanilla or chocolate, they go to soft-serve,” says Houle.

When it comes to choosing soft-serve or hard-pack, students are polarized, says Houle. “The people who want soft-serve, that is all they want. But they usually add toppings like sprinkles, caramel sauce or chocolate sauce to customize it.”

In January, Colorado also will debut a vegan frozen dessert at a new dining facility. It will be a dairy-free frozen offering that recreates the smooth, creamy mouth feel of conventional dairy-based ice cream. The new frozen dessert is expected to appeal to customers who are lactose intolerant as well as campus vegans.

Lactose-free frozen treats are one of several variations of soft-serve that appeal to consumers with special dietary needs or practices. For example, health-conscious guests wary of the fat content of ice cream—which contains at least 10 percent milk fat—may opt for low-fat soft serve. To other consumers, it may be important that their soft-serve is free of gluten, cholesterol and trans fat or made with certified kosher ingredients.

One thing all forms of soft-serve have in common is a lighter, softer texture than hard-pack ice cream, because they are made in equipment that incorporates more air into the mix and hardens it less. And because soft-serve is such a versatile frozen dessert platform, it lends itself to distinctive variations, such as soft-serve frozen yogurt made with cultured milk instead of cream and dairy-free soft-serve sorbet made simply with fruit puree. Within the category, there’s a frozen treat for virtually any taste and preference.