How KDD Ice Creams Are Made

A while back I contacted KDD and asked them if I could visit their factory so I could post about how my favorite ice creams were made. After a few emails back and forth I finally got to pass by earlier this week for a private tour. I was given some basic rules with regards to photography. I wasn’t allowed to shoot video or take wide shots of the factory floor and all the shots I did take would have to be approved by them. I thought these were fair requests and as long as I could still tell the story of how the ice creams were made I didn’t mind them.

The KDD factory is located in Subhan and is really huge. Before going on the tour I was required to wear a lab coat, a hair net, wash my hands and remove any jewelry. We then had a long walk to the ice cream making section of the factory and when we finally got there it turned out it was my lucky day. The first ice cream machine was busy making my favorite ice cream ever, KDD Silver. Because the post is long and full of pictures you have to click on the link below to check it all. Also if you want to go on a tour yourself there is contact info at the end of the post.

KDD Silver
Making KDD Silver involves a number of steps which I will take you through below.

1) The biscuit cones (already wrapped with the label) get fed into the machine. Then in the first step chocolate gets squirted into the biscuit. Other than adding flavor this helps create a strong base for the ice cream to sit on.

2) The second stage of the machine fills the cone with the chocolate caramel mix which is in a semi frozen state. Kinda like soft cream ice cream.

3) The third stage of the machine drops in the chocolate chips which is the last ingredient in the Silver ice cream.

4) After the chocolate chips get dropped in, the machine closes the cone and then picks them up and drops them into baskets.

5) The baskets get dropped onto a conveyor belt and head towards the freezing room.

6) The ice creams make a journey around the freezing room and by the time the journey ends they ice creams are frozen.

7) After making their way around the freezing room they exit on the other side ready to be packed into boxes and stored in their storage freezers.

KDD Ice Cream Sandwich
The second station I visited was the ice cream sandwich station. The ice cream sandwich is their biggest seller and so they have three machines that make them. Making the Sandwich Ice Cream is a very simple one step process.

1) You load up the biscuit shells on two sides of the machine which then proceeds to take the two shells and squeeze the ice cream filling in between them.

2) The machine then drops the sandwiches onto a conveyor belt

3) The sandwiches get wrapped and then dropped into a basket.

4) Once the basket gets filled they get dropped onto a conveyor belt which will send them into the freezing room before coming out the other side ready to be stored.

They had two kinds of sandwich machines, another newer model creates the sandwich in a different but faster 3 step process. Basically the biscuit gets dropped into the machine, the ice cream filling is then dropped on top of it and then the second biscuit is dropped on top before getting wrapped.

KDD Blitz (Failaka)
The third and final station I got to check out was producing the strawberry flavored Blitz (previously known as Failaka). This machine was larger than the other two and very interesting to watch because it was a large circle that kept turning and turning. The machine had a large circular disc with slots and underneath the disc is frozen salt water that keeps the disc on top below freezing temperature.

1) The first step of the machine involves filling the slots with strawberry juice. This will form the solid outer shell of the ice cream.

2) The second step sucks back the strawberry juice that was filled in the first step leaving just a frozen exterior shell.

3) In the third stage, semi frozen ice cream gets filled inside the strawberry shell.

4) Fourth step the popsicle sticks get placed into the ice cream.

5) After the sticks get placed, the ice cream gets picked up and taken off the disc and moved to another part of the machine where it is laid on its side inside the paper packaging.

6) The ice cream is packaged and ready to be stored.

The tour was something I’ve always wanted to do and I loved it. Since I’ve done Kitco already and now KDD I’m trying to figure out where to go next. Maybe the Sunkist factory?

If you’d like a tour of the KDD factory you can email them on [email protected] or call 1888100 and ask for the visitors department.