UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- For companies such as Ben and Jerry's and Haagen Daaz, ice cream is big business. But a new short course from Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences is for people who've always dreamed of having their own ice cream parlor.

"Ice Cream 101: Introduction to Frozen Desserts," Jan. 17-18 at the Nittany Lion Inn on Penn State's University Park campus, is designed for people who are fascinated by ice cream or may be considering their own small ice cream parlor, but don't want the scientific and professional rigor of Penn State's world-famous Ice Cream Short Course.

"The course is for people who are in the small-scale ice cream business or interested in going into it," says Bob Roberts, seminar coordinator and associate professor of food science. "We won't cover the business aspects, but a person who takes this course will know what questions to ask in purchasing a mix and how to solve problems as they arise. They also will have a good set of contact people that they can go to for help in solving problems."

Past and present Penn State faculty will join ice cream industry representatives to answer such questions as what transforms various ingredients into "ice cream" and how ice creams differ. Attendees also will discover how ice cream differs from soft serve and other frozen desserts, and how ingredients affect product quality. And for ice cream lovers, there will be plenty of hands-on training and "product testing."

"We'll cover ice cream composition, mixing and ingredients on the first day," Roberts says. "We'll go to the university's pilot plant and actually manufacture ice cream mixes. On the second day, we'll talk about freezing and flavoring systems and how to put these products together. In the afternoon we'll freeze the mixes we made the day before."

Registration will be accepted by fax or mail through Jan. 4. For registration information, contact the Office of Conferences and Short Courses by phone at 814-865-8301, or toll-free at (877) 778-2937, or by e-mail at http://conferences.cas.psu.edu.

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EDITORS: For more information on course content, contact Bob Roberts at 814-863-2959 or by e-mail at rfr3@psu.edu.

Contact:

Gary Abdullah gxa2@psu.edu 814-863-2708 814-863-9877 fax #298