
The real reason grocery stores are running out of whipped cream this Christmas - walterbell
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/12/21/the-real-reason-you-cant-buy-whipped-cream-this-christmas/
======
alex-
This almost sounds like a warning about a too centralised manufacturing
process across the food industry.

> “This story is a metaphor for the vulnerability of the entire food system,”
> said Daniel Block

However it seems to some what contradict it self:

> consumers will still be able to get whipped cream this season if they’re
> willing to compromise or look around

> There will also be no impact on non-aerosol whipped cream products

I am ok with the food industries resilience being across brands or even
category (i.e. aerosol v non-aerosol).

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gpsx
I thought the reason was going to be that new pie face game.
[http://www.hasbro.com/en-gb/product/pie-face-
game:1AB12F8D-5...](http://www.hasbro.com/en-gb/product/pie-face-
game:1AB12F8D-5056-9047-F5EB-DC080A178E16)

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yellowapple
"Neither Kraft, which makes Cool Whip, nor Saputo, which sells whipped cream
under the Land O’Lakes label, responded to questions about whether they too
would see shortages."

 _Would_ Cool Whip be affected by this? Cool Whip ain't typically distributed
in a spray can, last I checked; does it still use nitrous oxide as a
preservative?

~~~
mikestew
I doubt that frozen corn-syrup-in-a-tub would suffer from a lack of NO2.

~~~
quesera
Pedantry: NO₂ is nitrogen dioxide; nitrous oxide is N₂O.

And yeah, Cool Whip is barely a dairy product, and doesn't require propellant.
So no N₂O involved.

------
lightlyused
I buy heavy cream from
[http://www.snowvillecreamery.com/](http://www.snowvillecreamery.com/) and
whip my own. So easy and much more tasty. Ever see people at a concert selling
balloons? Those are filled with nitrous oxide. Wonder how this will affect
them?

~~~
ars
I presume you mean illegal nitrous oxide in the balloons? I would assume those
come from diverted medical supply, and the article said medical supply is
served first.

~~~
jimmywanger
> I would assume those come from diverted medical supply

Not necessarily. A lot of head shops in Berkeley sell capsules full of
nitrous, if you want to make your own whipped cream.

[https://www.amazon.com/Cafe-Creme-Nitrous-Whipped-
Chargers/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Cafe-Creme-Nitrous-Whipped-
Chargers/dp/B0002HLDD4). They look like C02 cartridges for airguns.

Coincidentally, the same stores sell balloons and devices (crackers) for
releasing the nitrous from the cartridges.

------
ChuckMcM
Manufacturing cream + powdered sugar + mixer on high = much yum!

Its always interesting to learn that the 'one thing' everyone uses is
vulnerable (like the expoxy that goes into IC packages[1]). Given its pretty
easy to make Nitrous Oxide out of Ammonium Nitrate[2] why not make it on site?

[1] From 1993 -
[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1309&dat=19930819&id=...](https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1309&dat=19930819&id=7jpOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9RMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5755,3383241)

[2]
[http://chemistry.about.com/od/makechemicalsyourself/ss/How-T...](http://chemistry.about.com/od/makechemicalsyourself/ss/How-
To-Make-Nitrous-Oxide-Or-Laughing-Gas.htm)

------
microcolonel
Seems like a non-issue. Whipping cream by hand takes less than ten minutes and
it's quite good. It's not going to be as fluffy and light as the stuff with
nitrous oxide, but for topping I think that's not the point.

~~~
anexprogrammer
"Quite good"? LOL

From a can it's _always_ UHT so tastes, for want of a better word, industrial.
Though I'd just call it horrible and would be offended if served it. Let's be
clear, _no one_ is going to mistake it for real cream.

Real whipping cream and a couple of mins with balloon whisk is the only way to
go.

~~~
aianus
What's UHT? The canned stuff I get is real cream.

~~~
microcolonel
He's referring to "ultra-high temperature" pasteurized creams. I figure, from
what he's saying, that this type of cream is required for the nitrous oxide
process.

Honestly I prefer the nitrous whipped creams, hand-whipped heavy/whipping
cream is second for me. Alex seems to think that flavour is universal, and
that all the people who like other flavours than him are _plants_ from the
food and beverage industry.

~~~
DanBC
I think you need the UHT pasteurization for the long life that a can of
whipped cream is expected to last for.

------
cafard
Given the speed with which one can whip heavy cream, I have a hard time seeing
the use of canned stuff. Whipping your own gives you a container and a couple
of blender paddles to clean, and that apart takes maybe a minute more. I have
to think that it tastes a lot better, too.

(I should add that before I met my wife, it would never have occurred to me to
do this. On the other hand, I'm not sure I ever bought the canned stuff,
either.)

~~~
SixSigma
Buying a container of whipped cream once a year vs owning a blender.

~~~
dozzie
People own blender for much more than just making whipped cream.

~~~
SixSigma
The total cost of ownership of a blender is more than the annual outsourcing
of whipped cream preparation.

If your assertion of people own blenders were true, there would be no whipped
cream shortage, unless there is widespread ignorance amongst cream whipping
equipment owners of the possibility of satisfying their demand with the means
of producton in their possession.

~~~
dozzie
Warning: low flying propositional logic. It's something that is commonly
taught to law and philosophy students, not only mathematicians.

> If your assertion of people own blenders were true, there would be no
> whipped cream shortage [...]

Let's take it from here. My assertion was that people own blenders for more
than just whipped cream. In other words, I claim that people use blenders
_also for other things_.

Given the article's claim that there is "whipped cream shortage" and how
implication ("if..then..") works, you basically say that my assertion is
invalid, meaning that people only use blenders for whipped cream.

Now go back and rethink what your stance is and how to convey it, because you
surely didn't mean _that_.

~~~
SixSigma
No and I knew it was flawed when I was typing it. I ran out of the will to fix
it.

