Laboratory work has sweet rewards

Ice cream helps keep lab running

RALEIGH -- This sterile room stuffed with winding tubes and metal vats isn't just any university lab.

That's because this lab, tucked away in the basement of the N.C. State University food science building, has churned out ice cream -- along with its own special mix of commerce and academics -- for almost 40 years.

It's formally called the the Dairy & Process Applications Laboratory, but it's more commonly known as "The Creamery." It produces 14 flavors of ice cream as well as regular and chocolate milk sold on the NCSU campus and at other state agencies.

It's the food science department's cash cow, so to speak.

Sales from the Creamery cover the costs of the lab, which is also used as a kind of test kitchen for dairy researchers. Ice cream receipts also support labs devoted to the processing and packaging of vegetables, meat and seafood.

"It's the lifeblood of this whole place," said Gary Cartwright, who oversees the scaled-down food processing plants.

The "pilot plants" have produced high-dollar innovations such as pickles in sealed bags and real eggs packaged for large-scale kitchens. But such high-tech methods aren't used on the ice cream.

Raw milk is trucked in 2,000 gallons at a time from the university's dairy farm on Lake Wheeler Road and swept through a labyrinth of metal tubes that heat it to kill most germs. Some is siphoned off and sold as milk. The rest goes to a holding vat, where it is kept overnight and thickened into cream.

The next day, it goes to a small bin where workers add "background flavors," such as chocolate and pureed strawberries. Chunkier fare such as chocolate chips is added after the cream is infused with air. That happens in a machine that uses sharp knives to cut the ice particles into tiny pieces.

It's the air and the size of the ice that make the ice cream creamy, Cartwright said.

Until last year, the Creamery could sell its products only to state agencies such as the Highway Patrol and the prison system. Now it can sell to the public but doesn't have the space yet.

A few customers call or find their way to the tiny office adjacent to the plant, but the best place to find Creamery ice cream is at the State Fair.

Food Science Club students sell three big scoops -- in a cup or a cone -- for $4. Milkshakes are $5.

NCSU is one of only a handful of colleges and universities nationally that make their own ice cream, Cartwright said.

The recipe hasn't changed much over the years, though flavors come and go. One, dubbed Chancellor's Choice, changes whenever the chancellor asks for a new flavor. (Right now it's red raspberry vanilla swirl, a school-spirited color choice.)

But Cartwright, who has worked at the Creamery for 14 years, said he is more traditional. His favorite flavor is vanilla.

"I'm a purist," he said. "Why mess with perfection?"