(WBIR-Knoxville) A viral video is making its rounds on the web and causing quite the conversation on social media. Our Facebook post has reached nearly one million people.
The video shows a man leaving a Walmart "Great Value" brand ice cream sandwich out in the sun for over an hour and it didn't melt.
"We heard over the weekend that a woman in Cincinnati bought Walmart ice cream Great Value brand ice cream sandwiches for her kids, and they didn't melt," the man said in the video.
Here at WBIR, we decided to do our own little test. We purchased four ice cream sandwiches. One was from Walmart, a Mayfield brand, an organic one from Earth Fare, and another one from Kroger.
We began our experiment at 12:30 in the afternoon when we placed the sandwiches on the table. The temperature was 73 degrees.
Throughout the hour you would notice some changes in two of the ice-cream sandwiches, but the other two didn't change at all. This was exactly what happened in the viral YouTube video.
The organic ice cream sandwich completely melted and the chocolate actually fell off of the top.
The Mayfield brand melted just a little bit, but Kroger and Walmart's didn't melt at all. They turned into a frothy mixture.
A Walmart representative has released a statement regarding claims that the ice cream isn't real. It reads: "Ice cream melts based on the ingredients including cream. Ice cream with more cream will generally melt at a slower rate, which is the case with our Great Value ice cream sandwiches."
Knoxville Dietitian Karen Lacey said that the ice cream didn't melt because it includes guar gum and cellulose gum. Both are used as stabilizers and are FDA approved.
