Craving snow cream? What a UK professor says about the safety of eating all this snow
It’s a treat you may remember from childhood: fresh snow mixed with a bit of cream or milk, vanilla extract and your favorite toppings.
Actor and businesswoman Reese Witherspoon recently shared her own recipe for it on TikTok, complete with chocolate and caramel sauce and a shot of cold brew.
In Central Kentucky, there’s certainly plenty of snow work with after a winter storm dumped about 7 inches of snow on the region Sunday and Monday. More may be on the way Friday, Jan. 10 with the National Weather Service in Louisville calling for a strong chance of snow that evening.
As an adult though, you may be wondering whether it’s safe or even recommended by health experts to eat snow. That’s a fair question, given we know snow can pick up several kinds of nasty pollutants as it falls to the ground.
Still, many health experts report there’s minimal risk to your health — provided you follow a few guidelines and some common sense recommendations. Here’s what to know if you want to recreate a childhood treat, including insights from University of Kentucky environmental health scientist Erin Haynes.
What’s the risk of eating snow?
First, consider what snow really is and what impact it has on the atmosphere as it forms and then falls to the ground.
The National Weather Service defines snow as an aggregation of ice crystals that form into flakes. We get snow when temperatures are below freezing and water vapor in the atmosphere condenses directly into ice, skipping the liquid stage.
When an ice crystal has formed, it draws in and freezes the water vapor around it, and the process continues as it falls to the ground. As they fall, these aggregated ice crystals work like tiny combs passing through the atmosphere, scrubbing it of pollutants. If you’ve ever taken a walk after a snowstorm, it’s why the air feels so fresh to breathe.
The consequence, however, is several kinds of pollutants accumulate in snowpacks. These can include vehicle exhaust, pesticides, industrial chemicals, trace metals, chlorides from road salts and even microplastics.
How can I eat snow safely?
We posed this question to Erin Haynes, a professor of preventative medicine and environmental health at the University of Kentucky.
According to Haynes, you should be mindful that pollutants can attach to snow, but recommends some guidelines you can follow if you’re craving a snow cream treat.
“That first, fresh snow does the job of clearing the air,” Haynes said. “So it’s recommended that you don’t eat the early part of snowfall, but wait until it accumulates a bit. Then, it’s generally safe to eat.”
Obviously, avoid any discolored snow. It should go without saying yellow and brown snow is a no go, but Haynes also recommends avoiding pink snow as well, due to algae contamination.
You should also avoid collecting snow from roadsides, especially those that have been plowed. You don’t want those nasty chlorides or vehicle exhaust pollutants in your snow cream.
“Sticking to the clean, mid to later snowfall is generally considered safe,” Haynes said. “Parents should feel safe letting their children enjoy that.”
How to make snow cream
You can whip up some snow cream with just three ingredients, two of which you likely already have. They include:
Snow (alternatively, you can use shaved ice from your fridge)
Sweetened condensed milk
Vanilla extract
Haynes recommends a recipe from childhood that uses honey and sugar mixed with milk or cream. Don’t forget the vanilla extract, but you only need a little.
“You got to have that. Got to have the flavor,” Haynes said.
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