Not enough fat to call your products ice cream, Bath's The Real Italian Ice Cream Co boss told

It looks like ice cream and tastes like ice cream.

But a Bath businessman has been told by council officials that he cannot refer to his product as ice cream any more because it does not have a high enough fat content.

Tim Coffey, who runs The Real Italian Ice Cream Co on York Street with his wife Francessca Addabbo, says he now has to rename all his products following a trading standards inspection last week.

Under the national government Food Labelling Regulation of 1996, to qualify as ice cream the food must have a fat content of five per cent or higher. Mr Coffey’s Italian ice cream, otherwise known as gelato, has a fat content of 4.8 per cent.

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He said: “It was just a normal visit making sure all weights and measures were correct and everything is fine. Then we had an email two days later saying the ice cream should no longer be referred to as ice cream and we need to rename it on all our price lists. This is basically all because it is healthy.”

The couple, who make all their ice cream on site using locally-sourced cream and milk, opened the shop in 2005.

Mr Coffey said he now had to decide whether to rename the ice cream gelato or change the recipe to increase its fat content. He added: “It looks like ice cream, it tastes like ice cream, it is ice cream but we can’t call it ice cream because of 0.2 per cent fat difference. Ice cream is a product that is popular with children, you want to make the fat content lower not higher.”

A spokesman for Bath and North East Somerset Council confirmed it had asked Mr Coffey to rename his product.

He said:“Mr Coffey was advised that gelato made in the traditional manner does not have the required fat content to meet the compositional standard for ice cream. The council, in its drive to promote healthier lifestyles, is supportive of local businesses such as the Real Italian Ice Cream Company, offering Italian-style gelatos which contain less fat than traditional ice cream.”

It has stressed that the regulations apply to businesses across the country and have been recognised by the industry trade body, the Ice Cream Alliance.