Derby ice cream parlour 'needs licence' for alcoholic flavours

The parlour's owners said getting a licence to sell their alcoholic flavours would put a strain on profits

An ice cream parlour has been told to remove three of its booziest flavours because it does not have a licence.

Some flavours sold by Just-Ice: Ethical Ice Cream in Derby contain more than 0.5% ABV, which mean they are alcoholic under licensing rules.

The city council said rum and raisin was a "classic" and the parlour could sell it "no problem" with a licence.

But the owners said the £1,000 cost would put pressure on their social enterprise business.

Gavin Murray, a Baptist minister who runs the venture with his wife, said they had also removed their Baileys and Irish coffee flavours.

Mr Murray said it was important for their social enterprise business to succeed

"We are fairly new to the ice cream business but it was a shock, a bit of a disappointment in the sense that ice cream isn't exactly a dangerous product," he said.

"I appreciate that alcohol is dangerous but in terms of ice cream, does that really need to be included?

"People only have one or two scoops and we were on about 1.1% ABV. That does not amount to much."

The parlour, based at Derby Market Hall, is a social enterprise which employs victims of human trafficking.

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Mr Murray said instead of paying for a licence they would try find ways to burn off the alcohol to bring the ice cream within the law.

"We are looking at including the alcohol in the pasteurisation phase to boil that off then test it. We want a good, high quality flavour," he added.

Councillor Mick Barker said under the Licensing Act 2003 anything more than 0.5% ABV needed a licence to be sold.

He said: "It's rather unusual because they tend to use essences these days. It is important to establish the fact there's real alcohol in there."