Breyers

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Brand logo
Product type	Frozen dessert
Owner	Unilever
Country	United States
Introduced	1866; 158 years ago (1866)
Previous owners	Kraft Foods Inc.
Website	breyers.com

Breyers is an American frozen dessert and ice cream brand.^[1][2] Created in 1866 by William Breyer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Breyers is the oldest company selling ice cream nationally in the United States.^[3]

By the 1920s, the brand was producing more than one million gallons annually.^[2] It was sold to the National Dairy Products Corporation in 1926 and again in 1993 to Unilever, which merged it with Good Humor to form the Good Humor-Breyers division.^[2]

The Breyers brand was created in 1866 by William Breyer, who made ice cream in his kitchen and sold it from a horse-drawn wagon in Philadelphia.^[4] By the time of his death in 1882, he had opened six shops in Philadelphia while still manufacturing the ice cream in his home.^[5]

In 1896, Breyer's sons Fred and Henry opened the first manufacturing facility for Breyers ice cream, incorporated the company, and began using the briar leaf in the company logo.^[2][6] The company opened its second facility in 1904 and became the first to use brine-cooled freezers the following year. By 1914, Breyers Ice Cream Company was selling one million gallons of ice cream annually. The company opened additional plants in Long Island City, New York, and Newark, New Jersey in the 1920s, and became a subsidiary of the National Dairy Products Corporation (NDPC) in 1926.^[7] NDPC sold the brand to Kraft in 1952.^[7] In 1969, Breyers became part of Kraftco – the precursor company to Kraft Foods, Inc. – with sales first in the southeastern United States, later extending west of the Mississippi River in 1984.^[6]

By 1986, Breyers was the best-selling ice cream brand in the United States.^[8] Its expansion into California was met with consumer confusion due to the similarity in name with Dreyer's, the most popular ice cream brand on the West Coast of the United States.^[8] Breyers' carton branding had drawn many imitators, leading to a redesign in the 1980s to make its cartons black with images of the product.^[9]

Unilever purchased Breyers ice cream in 1993 and merged it with Gold Bond and Good Humor ice cream to create the Good Humor-Breyers division. Kraft retained the rights to produce Breyers-branded yogurt.^[6][10] Unilever closed its last Breyers plant in Philadelphia in 1995.^[7] Good Humor-Breyers moved its headquarters from Green Bay, Wisconsin, to Toronto and Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, in 2007.^[11]

Breyers Yogurt was manufactured under license from Unilever at an upstate New York facility until the licensing agreement was terminated and the Breyers Yogurt line was discontinued in April 2011.^[12] Catterton continued to produce YoCrunch yogurt but without the Breyers co-branding until it sold the company in August 2013 to Group Danone.^[13][14]

Breyers manufactures two types of frozen dessert: "original ice cream" and "frozen dairy dessert", both in numerous variations of composition, flavor, and consumer preference.^[1][2] Some 60% of Breyers products are ice cream and 40% are frozen dairy dessert.^[2]

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ingredient requirements for frozen dessert products are defined in Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, subchapter B.^[15] As detailed in Part 135.110, Breyers original ice cream products adhere to the necessary FDA manufacturing requirements for the contents of milk fat and total milk solids not being less than 10% for each component.^[1][2][15]

Breyers frozen dairy dessert products are manufactured specifically to be different from the original ice cream products to provide a smoother texture.^[1][2] Despite the ingredient differentiation between dessert products since 2013, some American consumers have been confused by the qualities of a frozen dairy dessert when expecting the original Breyers ice cream.^[1][2][16]

Breyers ice cream products are made from milk, cream, sugar, tara gum, and flavors derived from natural sources, such as vanilla.^[1] Breyers provides dozens of ice cream dessert varieties and flavors for specialty diets, such as dairy-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, vegan, and low-carbohydrate ice cream products.^[2]

As an example of the composition of Breyers ice cream, the sugar-free vanilla ice cream is 68% water, 22% carbohydrates, 6% fat, and 4% protein.^[17] In a reference amount of 100 g (3.5 oz), the Breyers sugar-free ice cream provides 143 calories of food energy.^[17]

Previously, Breyers produced ice cream products for specialty diets, such as gluten-free ice cream approved by the FDA for gluten-free validation and product labeling.^[2] Other specialty diet ice creams included non-GMO and lactose-free variations.^[2]

Vanilla is the best-selling brand of Breyers ice cream, and Breyers sells more vanilla ice cream than competitors in the United States.^[2][3] To produce its vanilla flavors, Breyers uses 100% sustainably-sourced vanilla beans from Madagascar in a partnership with Rainforest Alliance.^[2]

Breyers frozen dairy desserts are manufactured with skim milk, corn syrup (or maltitol syrup), sugar or a sugar substitute, polydextrose, glycerin, and various other ingredients that may include whey, carob bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan, and added micronutrients (label image).^[2][18]

As an example of composition in a Breyers frozen dairy dessert, the product Birthday Blast is 38% carbohydrates, 7% fat, and 4% protein.^[18] In a reference amount of 100 g (3.5 oz), the Breyers Birthday Blast frozen dairy dessert provides 228 calories of food energy.^[18]

• Henry West Breyer Sr. House
• List of ice cream brands

• Official website