From CNN:
It’s a marvel of food technology: ice cream that resists melting.
In a video explaining the science behind it, a seller of food chemicals shows scoops of ice cream holding their shape under hot lights. The super ingredient? Polysorbate 80. Polysorbate 80 is an emulsifier, a chemical used to control the consistency of thousands of supermarket products. Other widely used emulsifiers or stabilizers include carboxymethyl cellulose, carrageenan, and maltodextrin. Recently, such ingredients have been showing up in scientific studies for another reason: Researchers say they may cause a variety of health problems.