From young to old, everyone enjoys ice-cream. However as result of obesity epidemic, eating ice-cream leads to a guilt feeling of consuming too many calories. Ice cream researchers at the University of Missouri are trying to produce healthier and tastier ice-cream by adding dietary fiber, antioxidants and probiotics.

Ingolf Gruen, MU professor of food chemistry and ice cream researcher in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources said, "The idea of putting a functional ingredient into a food instead of just using the nutrients found in the food naturally takes a multi-functional approach. Food provides calories and comfort -- people want to indulge. We're working on making ice cream satisfying and healthy."

However, research team has to face many challenges to produce healthy as well as tasty ice-cream.

The biggest challenge is to maintain the flavor and texture of the ice-cream, as the nutrients research team planning to add has bitter tastes and it also affects the texture of ice cream.

Hence, researchers have to find a way to give healthy ice-cream a good taste and rich texture like normal ice-cream. Another challenge is the psychological acceptance of the new healthy ice-cream.