Your Favorite Fruit in Your Favorite Dessert By: Joseph Cortes 8/30/00 If you think you've tried all the ice cream brands you've heard off, well, you haven't. Make room for one more. By yearend, Fruits in Ice Cream (FIC), a premium brand ice cream line, will finally be stocked in supermarket freezers. The name might not be familiar, but in Japan and the West Coast, FIC has already gained a following in the past three years. In fact, it was reported that the ice cream brand might have been served in the recent G-8 Summit meeting in Okinawa, Japan. But The Food People, Inc., the company behind FIC, are not resting on its laurels. The company's planned entry into the local market will be the biggest challenge its ice cream line will be facing, so much more tougher than the strict health standards imposed on the product by the US and Japanese governments. The people behind The Food People, Inc. know their business well, having worked with San Miguel's international group and Magnolia Ice Cream. When the international group was disbanded in the early '90s, they decided to pool their resources together and work on a product they know so well - ice cream. The Food People are Rosalinda M. Custodio, Jose Ma. M. Celdran, Edgardo S. Garcia, Rafael Q. Tuazon, Cesar Geronimo, and Vivien "Dida" T. Ongkiko. Although they were competing with a number of known ice cream brands in the export market, Celdran says Filipino ice cream makers have the monopoly in fruit-flavored ice cream. "There is no premium fruited ice cream brand in the world market," he explains. "It is the niche the Philippines holds internationally." FIC's flavors include: cappuccino, rocky road, green tea, halo-halo, mango, tsokolate, ube and vanilla in its premium line; strawberry, macapuno, Dulce Leche and durian in its gourmet selection line; and Vanilla Decadence and Choco-Hazel Crumble in a limited edition line. It pays to know the health and safety standards required in the different countries of the world. In the Middle East, the halaal prescriptions are an important factor, as well as the colors to be used on the product and labeling. In the United States, for an ice cream to be called such requires a minimum amount of milk fat and solids. The Japanese market requires zero coliform count, whereas most local brands have as much as 100 coliform count.

But Celdran stresses that despite these strict requirements, the foreign market still buys ice cream depending on the type of ice cream offered and not based on the brand. "In the mainstream Japanese market, they now go for fruit-flavored ice cream," he adds. "That's something even popular foreign brands cannot do well. One brand tried making an ube ice cream, but it came out tasting like sand. Other countries, like Mexico, India and Pakistan, also make mango ice cream. But nothing really compares to our own mango ice cream." The Philippines' advantage in fruit-flavored ice cream dates way back to the '60s when Magnolia Ice Cream first came out with its flavor of the month concept. Custodio says the concept was the ice cream company's way of working around the traditional flavors of ice cream - chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. When Nestlé took over the company in the '90s, they were surprised to discover recipes for more than a hundred ice cream flavors. "They really cracked up when they saw that file," Custodio adds. Ice cream flavors which flopped, or became known as bodega flavors, were guava, mint, apple, cherry and banana. Local flavor varieties which were met with skepticism by foreigners were mantecado or butter, cheese and fruit salad. "You can really put anything into ice cream, except garlic," she says. In Pakistan, there is curry flavor ice cream, while in Indonesia they have ginger- and lemon coconut-flavored ice cream. In Taiwan, they even have sweet potato ice cream. "Ice cream flavors are really a cultural thing," she says. Likewise, the way ice cream is sold is also another matter. Except for the United States, Japan and the Philippines, ice cream is sold mostly by the stick or the scoop all over the world. It is only the three countries that ice cream is sold in half-gallon and gallon containers. "That's what really peculiar about ice cream consumption in these countries," Custodio explains. Right now, The Food People is improving its distribution system for FIC. It is now being sold at Shoppersville at Loyola Heights, Katipunan, while other retailers are actually based at home. However, the ice cream is now being served at a number of restaurants, such as Tagaytay Highlands, Manila Golf & Country Club, Basilique, Kaya , Kimpura Restaurants in Greenhills and Glorietta, Cafe Appassionato, Chateau 1771, Portico, Confusion, Manna, Picadeli and Xavier grade school canteen. < more Reviews >