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Cold Stone Creamery — photo
Cold Stone Creamery — photo 2
Cold Stone Creamery — photo 3
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Cold Stone Creamery — photo 5

Cold Stone Creamery

1,472 locations · 1 rating

25/100Avoid
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What the score is made of

Four categories, weighted. Seed oils count three times as much as plastics or ultra-processing, so a poor seed-oil score pulls the overall number down hardest.

  • Seed oil3× weight50
  • Additives2× weight0
  • Plastics0.5× weight
  • NOVA0.5× weight0

Plastics has no ratings yet and count as 0 toward the overall score — an unproven category isn’t a free pass.

Full methodology: how we score restaurants.

What reviewers said

@Fable_X_Tallow4w ago

Cold Stone's own ingredient statement covers 87 flavors and every single one lists mono and diglycerides, with carrageenan, polysorbate 80 and annatto in all 75 ice creams before any mix-in is added. Seed oils are narrower - 35 of 87 name soybean, canola or cottonseed, and they come from the baked mix-ins rather than the ice cream base.

Cold Stone publishes a real per-flavor ingredient statement, and it covers 87 items: 75 ice creams built on one shared Sweet Cream base plus 12 sorbets. The base is the whole story. Every one of those 75 lists cellulose gum, carrageenan, mono and diglycerides, polysorbate 80 and annatto color before a single mix-in is added, and mono and diglycerides appear in all 87 statements, sorbets included. 53 of 87 list artificial flavor, 26 sodium benzoate, 20 potassium sorbate, 13 high fructose corn syrup, 19 Red 40, 11 Blue 1 and 9 Yellow 5. Six still list partially hydrogenated oil and six list TBHQ. Seed oils are the one area it does better than expected: 35 of 87 name soybean, canola or cottonseed oil, and they ride in on the baked mix-ins such as cake batter, cookie dough, Oreo and graham crust rather than the ice cream itself, so a plain vanilla, chocolate or sorbet has none. This document does not cover shakes, cakes or waffle cones.

Common questions

What is in Cold Stone Creamery's food?

Tallow reviewers check Cold Stone Creamery on four things: whether it cooks in seed oils, whether the menu carries artificial additives, whether food touches plastic on the way out, and how much of it arrives premade rather than made in the kitchen. The answers to each are scored below.

Does Cold Stone Creamery use seed oils?

Sometimes. Cold Stone Creamery scores 50/100 here, so reports are mixed.

Does Cold Stone Creamery use artificial additives?

Yes. Cold Stone Creamery scores 0/100 here — reviewers report a lot of artificial additives.

Is Cold Stone Creamery healthy?

Not really — Cold Stone Creamery scores 25/100, a poor score. Tallow rates what a kitchen cooks with, not how many calories are on the plate.

Does Cold Stone Creamery serve premade or ultra-processed food?

Yes. Cold Stone Creamery scores 0/100 here — reviewers report mostly premade or ultra-processed food.

Cold Stone Creamery locations

Showing 40 of 1,472

  • 6925 S Franklin Rd, Indianapolis
  • 5025 E 82nd St, Indianapolis
  • 228 S Grant St, Bloomington
  • 6401 E Lloyd Expy, Evansville
  • 112 W 2nd St, Owensboro
  • 5140 Frederica St, Owensboro
  • 3727 N Woodford St, Decatur
  • 124 S 6th St, Springfield
  • 2100 Troy Rd, Edwardsville
  • 3228 Green Mount Crossing Drive, Shiloh
  • 451 Jordan Dr, Paducah
  • 201 N 12th St, Murray
  • 2323 N Germantown Pkwy Ste 103, Collierville
  • 2323 N Germantown Pkwy, Memphis
  • 257-299 Mississippi 12, Starkville
  • 4751 Rice Mine Rd NE, Tuscaloosa
  • 1430 Gadsden Hwy, Ste 108, Trussville
  • Birmingham
  • 128 ALA Hwy Unit 2, Albertville
  • 2501 Whittlesey Blvd, Ste G, Columbus
  • 114 W Magnolia Ave, Auburn
  • 4871 Montgomery Hwy, Dothan
  • Panama City
  • Panama City Beach
  • 10710 FL-54, New Port Richey
  • 1646 Bruce B Downs Blvd, Wesley Chapel
  • Highwood Preserves, Tampa
  • 14365 N Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa
  • 9214 Anderson Rd, Tampa
  • 3810 W Neptune St, Tampa
  • 2774 E Fowler Ave, Tampa
  • 2024 Badlands Dr, Brandon
  • 3426 Lithia Pinecrest Rd, Valrico
  • 12970 US Highway 301 S Ste 103, Riverview
  • 7220 US Highway 19 N, Pinellas Park
  • 100 Main St, Safety Harbor
  • Dunedin
  • 35607 US Highway 19 N, Palm Harbor
  • 2923 W Bay Dr, Belleair Bluffs
  • 7476 Cortez Rd W, Bradenton

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