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American Morning
Florida Reporter Melts Big Daddy Ice Cream Claim
Aired June 18, 2001 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Across the Southeast, dieters have been raving about a sweet treat that has been flying off of the shelves in convenience stores and now grocery stores: Big Daddy vanilla ice cream.
Now, the label on this ice cream says that a 12 ounce serving contains 100 calories and only 2 grams of fat. But that is not so according to the tests conducted by the South Florida "Sun-Sentinel." Those tests showed that each 12 ounce serving actually contained 300 calories and 7 grams of fat. The Florida company that makes the ice cream says it will correct the cartons as soon as possible.
HARRIS: Let's get some more on this dilemma. We go to the phone and we talk now with -- actually, we're joined live now by Mitch Lipka. He is a consumer reporter with the "Sun-Sentinel." He just happens to be in Boston this morning.
Thanks for talking to us about this. Mitch, first of all, why did you go after Big Daddy in the first place?
MITCH LIPKA, "SUN-SENTINEL": I didn't go after Big Daddy, per se. It was just -- you hear these tales about something becoming really popular and you check it out. And I said: Wait a second, is this a little bit too good to be true? And that was kind of the original smell test here.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: OK. So, now, what happened then? You went and got your own laboratory to conduct tests on this -- or what?
(CROSSTALK)
LIPKA: Well, first, I actually tried the ice cream.
HARRIS: OK.
LIPKA: And I said: Well, gee, you know, what are they doing here that makes this so low calorie, so low fat? If you tried a regular low-fat ice cream, a half-cup serving is 100 calories. And this one was a cup and a half.
So how can you be one-third of what you're -- all the biggest companies in the country could possibly make? Then, having realized that you really can't do that, we figured it would be pretty easy to send it to a lab and just be sure.
HARRIS: OK.
LIPKA: And, in fact, it confirmed what I thought, that it had actually tripled what they claim, which means that if they really had the right serving size of a half a cup, that would have been honest.
HARRIS: Now, for folks who don't really know about Big Daddy ice cream -- or they may not understand exactly what the big thrill about it was -- as I understand it, this was an item that had been recommended by groups like Weight Watchers because so many people were ecstatic about the fact that it tasted so good and was purported to have so few calories, correct?
LIPKA: Right, it was usually popular among people on Weight Watchers, where you are basically getting a certain number of points of food that you can eat during the course of the day.
HARRIS: Right.
LIPKA: And here you have an ice cream -- this is ice cream. It's just not ice milk or yogurt. This is ice cream that you can have for 100 calories and 2 grams of fats. That's two points. That's the same as having an apple. Now, the difference would be is, if you counted the correct number of points, it would be the same as eating a doughnut.
So, you get an idea: apple, doughnut, apple, doughnut.
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: As I read it, it was not just a doughnut, man, but a chocolate-covered doughnut, which is a big difference.
(LAUGHTER)
LIPKA: Oh, yes, one delicious doughnut. And I would venture to guess that not too many of those Weight Watchers people would have made the choice between the apple and the doughnut and took the doughnut.
HARRIS: Oh, you know that.
LIPKA: In this case, they all -- and they were all having this ice cream, believing this was two points, guilt free. "I can eat 12 ounces of this stuff."
That's a whole container, you know.
HARRIS: Well, let me ask you, when you found out the actual numbers on it and you went back to the makers of Big Daddy and told them, is it true that they were surprised, that they themselves didn't know this?
LIPKA: Well, you know, that's what they said. I can't really read into the guy's mind what he knew and when he knew it. But his initial reaction was, "My God." And then, from there, several phone calls later, after he said he had talked to some other people in his factory and people who were involved in making the label, he said that in fact we were right, that it should have said three servings.
And, really, its whole success, I think, was based on their claim of one serving; 12 ounces is all -- all that ice cream for so little calories, you know.
HARRIS: Yes, there have been so many of us in the newsroom here who were reminded of a certain "Seinfeld" episode. When they had fat- free yogurt that tasted too good to be true, it turned out to be. But in that case, it was a fraud that was being perpetrated.
But are you convinced that there was no trickery involved here?
LIPKA: You really can't know for sure. Only the people at that ice cream company really know what happened. All we did was try to show people what the truth was. And now the company is correcting it. I suspect that whatever meteoric sales increase that they've had over the past few months is going to stop. But I also think it's attributable that label.
HARRIS: Who knows, man?
LIPKA: If they did not have -- I'm sorry. Go ahead, Leon.
HARRIS: In this case, it's been some free advertising they're getting, because we have said Big Daddy on the air this morning at least about, what, 10, 15 times? So, who knows?
LIPKA: Well, sure -- also, in the context of, you know, they deceived you, whether they did it on purpose or not.
HARRIS: Yes.
LIPKA: So if they sell more ice cream because of it, then that's entirely up to the consumers. Now at least they know the truth. And they can base it on reality instead of on fiction.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: OK, food policemen Mitch Lipka.
LIPKA: Pretty much. Sure. Thanks for having me this morning.
HARRIS: Nice going. Good to talk to you. Take care.
LIPKA: Thanks. Bye-bye.
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