Sweeteners are used in ice cream to make it more delicious. A sweetener is a food additive that provides a sweet taste. Some sweeteners are natural a-nd some are synthetic. Those that are not natural are, in general, called artificial sweeteners. Traditionally, sucrose, commonly referred to as granulated or table sugar, was the only sweetener used in ice cream. Today, many sweeteners, including dextrose, fructose, sucrose, lactose, maltose, honey, invert sugar, molasses, brown sugar a-nd corn syrups, are used.

In ice creams, sweeteners are not only responsible for taste, but also control the softness of the ice cream, the more sweetener in a mix, the softer it will be. Because sweeteners can lower the freezing point of the mix to allow some water to reaming unfrozen at serving temperatures. A lower freezing point makes ice cream easier to scoop a-nd eat, although the addition of too much sugar can make the product too soft.