CR's take: These fat-free ice creams weren't necessarily rich and creamy, but they were smooth and fooled our panel (in terms of being fat-free). If you're an ice cream fan, it's definitely worth a try; 1.75 quart sells for about $6 in New York and California, which is equal to about 43 cents per half-cup serving.

We last reported on "churned" ice cream in August 2004, where we gave a pretty good review of Dreyer's/Edy's light ice creams. Now Breyers has come out with a double-churned fat-free ice cream that claims to be "so rich and creamy you won't believe it's fat free!" The maker of Breyers claims to use a unique, proprietary double-mixing process that gives the ice cream a rich and creamy texture. We tasted and evaluated the Extra Creamy Vanilla and French Chocolate flavors and compared them with their light and regular counterparts.

In blind tastings among food and sensory staffers, we found that the two flavors were pretty darn good. Comments about the texture were that the fat-free ice creams were smooth, slightly gummy, and had a texture like gelato, a pudding pop or fudgsicle. All testers thought these products were decent ice creams (not the best, but definitely not the worst). When told that they were fat free, the panel was very surprised and commented that these ice creams are a big improvement over the fat-free ice creams that we've tasted in the past.

Nutritionally (see chart below), there's not a substantial calorie savings with the fat-free version when compared with the light version. However, if you eat a lot of ice cream, the fat difference could really add up. The fat and calorie savings when compared with the regular ice cream are obvious. Plus there's the added benefit of fiber in the fat-free versions (3 to 4 grams per 1/2 cup), due to the added polydextrose (used here as a fat replacer) and gums.