Are Ben & Jerry Releasing a Cannabis-Infused Ice Cream?

Ben & Jerry are stalwarts of the ice cream industry. Two respected businessmen, making people all over the world happy with their fun and frivolous tubs of ice cream.  But how would the world react if everyone’s favourite frozen double act followed through on their plans to create cannabis-infused ice cream?

Ben & Jerry’s philosophy

It may not be a surprise to those well-versed in the Ben & Jerry philosophy. The ice cream company founders may have turned to the dark-side in recent years, but their formation was influenced by 60s counter culture rather than cold, hard capitalism. In fact, the iconic brand can still be seen represented in the birthplace of the hippy movement in San Francisco.

Increasing legalisation of marijuana in US states has led brands to consider how they can capitalise on a new, untapped market. Who better than Ben & Jerry to lead the way with marijuana infused ice-cream? The rumours began when the pair announced to the Huffington Post that they considered the idea to "make sense” in places where cannabis consumption has been legalised, with Ben Cohen adding, “combine your pleasures!”

The pair also admitted that much of the control over the company is now out of their hands, and as yet Ben & Jerry have no solid plans for marijuana ice cream in the pipeline. But the issue raises questions over the legality of producing edible, cannabis-infused products, particularly in the US where legalisation of the drug is increasing.

Although medical marijuana is currently legal in four US states, the introduction of the drug in edible items, such as ice cream, still raises many concerns. Specific to products like ice cream is the worry that they will end up being consumed by children. Even if sales are restricted to adults or medical marijuana centres, trying to convince a child that ice cream is not suitable for them is bound to be difficult.

The second issue is with transportation. Transporting ingredients, packaging or anything related to the product across state lines when there is no consistency in American marijuana laws could provoke difficulties and affects the commercial viability of such a targeted product.

Next is the problem of regulation – as the industry is pretty much untapped at the moment, how would pioneering companies begin to traverse the regulatory standards? Finally, current laws only allow for medical marijuana which, although it would have the same effect, is not what Ben & Jerry have in mind for this particular ice cream.

With all these issues standing in the way, it seems unlikely we’ll see a pot of cannabis infused Ben & Jerry’s on the supermarket shelves anytime soon. But surely it’s only a matter of time until the commercial call of America’s newest legalised vice reaches the boardroom.

Further Reading

In dairy production, such as ice cream, sterile processing is particularly important, because they are an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. This is why milk processing companies are regularly inspected by the responsible surveillance authorities. If silver is detected in the product, this suggests that the disinfectant was not washed out completely and the equipment has not been cleaned carefully enough. To read more about this analysis, take a look at this article: Determination of Silver in Ice Cream - Food Monitoring with Direct Solid Sampling HR-CS AAS.