Ice Cream Made From Horse’s Milk May Be Better for Your Gut Than the Regular Dessert

Do you ever wish your summer scoop of ice cream was just a tad healthier but still just as delicious? Well, you may want to give horse ice cream a try!

Yes, according to a new study, mare’s milk is not only as viable as cow’s milk when it comes to making ice cream, but richer in probiotic bacteria that could benefit digestion.

The results were published in PLoS ONE.

Straight from the horse’s…

Horse’s milk is more similar in structure to human milk than cow’s milk, due to its low casein-to-whey protein ratio, low mineral content and high levels of lactose and polyunsaturated fatty acids – the latter of which are known to benefit gut health and reduce inflammation.

To gauge the quality of ice cream made from such milk, researchers from the West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Poland, developed four varieties of mare’s milk ice cream.

The milks were first pasteurized then inoculated with different strains of bacteria, many belonging to the order Lactobacillales.

The first milk was mixed with Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii bacteria. The second was inoculated with inulin, a prebiotic that can encourage the growth of certain bacteria. The third included the bacteria Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus and inulin, while the fourth was given Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and inulin.

After allowing for fermentation, the milks were cooled, blended and frozen to form four separate ice creams.

Making mare's ice cream. Image credit: Szkolnicka et al.

None of the creams differed significantly in their melting rates or levels of protein and fat. Acidity, however, was affected. The first ice cream without inulin had the highest acidity level, a finding that suggests that inulin keeps acidity in check.

All ice creams were deemed to have a “high overall sensory quality.”

The Lactobacillales bacteria survived well in all three creams with inulin, reaching 7 log colony forming units per gram (cfu/g) in some samples, above the level deemed to have “therapeutic” value (6 log cfu/g). The same type of bacteria fared more poorly in the first ice cream without inulin, however.

As such, the researchers conclude that inulin may be necessary to guarantee the probiotic benefits of mare’s milk.

If these kinds of bacterial boons can be secured, they say horse-derived ice cream could well have a place in ice cream trucks of the future.  

“Obtained products seem to be good candidates to introduce mare’s milk to the diet of western consumers, which are not familiar with this milk type,” the authors concluded.

Reference: Szkolnicka K, Mituniewicz-Małek A, Dmytrów I, Bogusławska-Wąs E. The use of mare’s milk for yogurt ice cream and synbiotic ice cream production. PLoS ONE. 2024;19(8):e0304692. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304692