For many Spartans, the MSU Dairy Store is the first and most important stop on any visit to campus. With homemade ice cream and cheese products, there’s no place better to cool off on a hot day while supporting students preparing for careers in the dairy foods industry. Celebrating the deliciousness of National Ice Cream Day on July 21, this special edition of the Week in Photos takes a deep dive into the process of making the MSU Dairy Store’s famous ice cream.
July 23, 2024
Getting the inside scoop on the MSU Dairy Store
Once milk is collected, it is sent to a Michigan Milk Producers Association facility in Ovid, Michigan, where it is turned into pasteurized cream, ready to be used for ice cream and cheese making at the MSU Dairy Plant.
Cream is batched and turned into white or chocolate ice cream mix, then pasteurized and sent to the pasteurized tanks in the freezing center of the Dairy Plant.
Members of the Dairy Plant team (from left to right): Mollie Woods, director of the product center; Farida Adam, dairy specialist; Brenna Bischer, student; Jackson Wilcox, Dairy Plant operator; Alec Stout, student; Alex Mirabitur, student; Matt Wilcox, production and operations manager. Photo by Derrick L. Turner.
It’s here that the production process begins, once the Dairy Plant team sanitizes equipment. Ice cream is then pumped from pasteurized tanks into the ice cream freezer, while flavorings and colors, like real Michigan black cherries for black cherry ice cream, are added to flavor vats. Photo by Derrick L. Turner.
After inclusions are added, the mix travels to a filling table, where it is piped into three-gallon tubs, quarts and pints. Photo by Derrick L. Turner.
Filled containers are moved to a hardening freezer, where they spend the night completely freezing up. Photo by Derrick L. Turner.
Three-gallon tubs that are used in the Dairy Store are moved to a tempering freezer before being served, allowing them to warm up slightly to reach the perfect scoopable texture. Photo by Derrick L. Turner.
In the Dairy Store, located in Anthony Hall, Spartans can choose from a selection of 13 weekly rotating flavors of ice cream, as well as sundaes, shakes and packaged products like pre-scooped pints, ice cream sandwiches and cheeses. Photo by Derrick L. Turner.
Members of the MSU Dairy Store team (from left to right): Tehzib Syed, Noah Burton, Katy Pakkala, Alyssa Miller and Robbie Nixon. Photo by Derrick L. Turner.
Customers grab a sweet treat at the MSU Dairy Store. Photo by Derrick L. Turner.
Part of what makes the Dairy Store so special is its unique selection of flavors, ranging from classics like chocolate and vanilla, to flavors that can only be found at MSU, like Spartan Swirl, Izzo's Malted Madness, Beaumont Brownie Bliss and Rare Isotope Creams.
Participants in the Gifted and Talented Education, or GATE, program at MSU visit the Dairy Store as part of their summer curriculum, learning about ice cream production and enjoying a few scoops along the way. Photo by Derrick L. Turner.