From making her family smile to making a difference in the world, artisan ice cream maker Roz Kaldor-Aroni explains why she wanted to make a better healthy ice cream – while also doing good for people and the planet.
I always want to do better. Better for people, better for the planet. And also, simply better! I remember as a child growing up down at Bondi Beach with my grandfather and identical twin sister. He would take us both out to have Guido’s gelato. That was heaven, those flavours! The chocolate – I become a chocoholic just based on that! The chocolate was stunning, the lemon so real and together, exceptional. There was nothing better.
But fast forward to recent years, as an adult and needing to make healthier choices and have good nutrition, I thought that healthy ice cream could be better – better for you, but without compromising on the flavour. Better in every sense!
When it comes to sweet treats, people with an interest in healthy eating should not have to choose between it being better for you, or better flavour – particularly when standing in front of the ice cream freezer at the supermarket! You want something with a taste and texture that is indulgent – that’s the whole point of “treating yourself” – but you still want something that is kind to your body, especially if you are trying to eat better for serious health reasons.
For me, it is also important that what I eat – and what I make for others to eat – is kind to the planet, and to other people. I want to use people’s love of healthy ice cream to help make the world a better place. I have always loved making ice cream for my husband and son. Finding new recipes and perfecting family favourites was my hobby back when I was a lawyer and businesswoman.
But then one Mother’s Day my family gave me an ice cream textbook – and a light bulb went off. Ice cream making involved maths, physics and chemistry – subjects I had loved since school and had studied at university, along with law. A hobby quickly became an obsession – I wanted to learn everything I could about making ice cream including travelling to Italy and Canada to train with the best. Not just making ice cream, but making it better. In short, I became a healthy ice cream geek!
Ice cream will always be a “treat”. But after lots of study and research – thanks to my extensive food and science knowledge – I worked out how to make an ice cream that is not only naturally better for you, without chemicals or artificial sweeteners but also uses 30% less added sugar plus added fibre, using a method where I now have a granted patent.
And being clean label means all ingredients are made with minimal processing, along with being free from chemicals, colours and preservatives. Elato ice creams also use added pre-biotic fibre for good gut health as well as being low in lactose, and the major allergens gluten, soy and nuts.
But Elato is not just about “clean label, less sugar” artisan healthy ice cream. My husband and I created Elato as a social enterprise. This means giving back to people and the planet. Half of our profits are used to support OzHarvest, which saves surplus food from landfill and repurposes it to help those in need.
We chose to support OzHarvest because of its focus on food rescue to address food supply shortages in Australia and elsewhere. This approach also extends to the sourcing of all our flavour suppliers who are artisanal, small batch social enterprises committed to sustainability, fair trade, a positive social impact and regenerative agriculture.
Our organic vegan chocolate is sourced from the Solomon Islands through social enterprise chocolate Solomons Gold, vanilla is sustainably sourced from Tonga through the internationally acclaimed Heilala Vanilla, and coffee is ethically sourced by Change Coffee which is World Vision’s first social enterprise in Australia.
I am already looking for more social enterprise producers I want to shine a light on. This part of my role as Elato’s product developer is like being on a treasure hunt – hunting for ever better flavours to offer not just in Australia but eventually around the globe.
