Nicole Frankel was experimenting with ways to get her three children to crave eating healthy fruit and vegetables. In the process she invented what is being promoted as “the first nutritious, better-for-you kids ice cream available on the market today.” The brand name was taken from her eldest daughter’s reaction to the product at first taste, when she exclaimed that the vegetable-infused treat was: “Yum Actually.”
Launched during the uncertainty of March 2020, Yum Actually is now available at Morton Williams Supermarkets, a family-owned and operated food retailer with sixteen stores in the New York City Metropolitan area. Among other NYC retailers who currently stock the four-flavor line of vegetable- and fruit-based ice cream are Brooklyn Fare, Foodtown, Matter of Health, Lincoln Market, and Westside Markets, in addition to specialty and neighborhood markets.
Currently offered in convenient four-packs, each cup provides a full serving of a healthy fruit or vegetable. Flavors featured are Mango, Sweet Potato and Caramel, Banana and Honey, and Butternut Squash and Butterscotch.
Fully intent on getting her kids to eat fruits and vegetables regularly by creating a sweet treat like ice cream, Frankel knew that the recipe could not be loaded with excess sugars, artificial flavors or extra calories. Yum Actually ingredients include organic cane sugar using 40% less sugar than what is found in most leading ice cream brands. Each serving provides a measurable daily recommended value of vitamins.
The Butternut Squash and Butterscotch flavor contains 45% of the RDA of Vitamin A. Other offerings such as Mango, as well as the Sweet Potato and Caramel, supply 90% of the daily recommended value of Vitamin C along with 20% of Vitamin A.
The carefully selected naturally sourced and organic ingredients of Yum Actually have been recognized by Snack Safely in its Safe Snack Guide, which notes that Yum Actually is free from specific allergens.
Along with positive reviews from children and adults, Yum Actually has earned a 2021 World Dairy Innovation Award. Judges considered 222 entries from 33 countries across 20 categories in recognizing innovators of dairy and dairy alternative products. Yum Actually was the winner for the category of Best Children’s Dairy Product as a Fruit and Veggie Ice Cream Snack Cup.
