Ice cream in China doesn't melt, even under a flame, sparking controversy

Zhong Xue Gao, an upscale ice cream company in China, is taking heat after a video on Weibo shows how their frozen desserts just won't melt no matter how hot it gets. Nicknamed the "Hermes of ice cream" for their high prices and supposedly high quality, the ice cream company "sparked controversy," according to Oddity Central (OC), after somebody posted a photo of one of their luxury ice-cream bars next to a thermometer that read 31 degrees (C).

The post inspired others to conduct melt-tests, with one holding a lighter flame to the unmeltable ice cream (see first video below), and another person aiming a kitchen torch toward the frozen dessert, which pretty much stayed in tact, according to Oddity Central.

From OC:

As the controversy around the quality of its supposedly high-end ice cream grew, Zhongxuegao eventually came out with a statement to hopefully put customers' minds at ease. It claimed to use a 'viscosity-enhancing agent' to prevent the ice cream from melting easily, but assuring everyone that its product still met the national food safety standards.

And from South Morning China Post:

An officer from local regulator the Shanghai Market Supervision and Management Bureau said on Tuesday that they were aware of the videos and said it is investigating the case, the report said.

The video, viewed 500 million times on Weibo, showed the ice cream stayed in a sticky state, rather than melting into liquid as normal ice cream would. …

"The main components of the baysalt coconut-flavoured ice cream are milk, single cream, coconut pulp, condensed milk and milk powder. Forty per cent of this ice cream is solid materials," the company claimed in a statement released on Weibo.

Perhaps the "viscosity-enhancing agent" the company claims to use is the same "polyphenol found in strawberry" that ice cream makers in Japan have been using for years. A YouTube video posted in 2017 (see second video below) shows heat-resistant ice cream by Kanazawa Ice that won't melt, even when blasted by a blowdryer. But if that's the case, why doesn't Zhong Xue Gao just come out and say it?