Heavy creams with the fewest additives

Updated: February 23, 2017

Heavy creams (or whipping creams) often contain questionable additives. For example, glycerides are often added as emulsifiers and carrageenan for thickening or consistency.

I try to avoid carrageenan and glycerides because they may have negative health effects. If you'd like to do the same, my recommendations are below.

You can also see my analysis of whipped creams.

Recommended as low-additive refrigerated heavy creams:

Clover Sonoma Farms Heavy Cream

Store finder (currently available in California and parts of Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, and Wyoming).

Positives:

monoglycerides / diglycerides-free
carrageenan-free

Negatives:

(none)

All ingredients:

Pasteurized grade A cream.

Kalona SuperNatural Organic Whipping Cream

Store finder (widely available in health food-ish stores throughout the US).

Positives:

monoglycerides / diglycerides-free
carrageenan-free

Negatives:

(none)

All ingredients:

Certified Organic Grade A Cream.

Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream (Pasteurized)

To avoid carrageenan, make sure to get the regular pasteurized version. The ultrapasteurized version adds gellan gum.

Store finder (widely available in health food-ish stores throughout the US).

Positives:

monoglycerides / diglycerides-free
carrageenan-free

Negatives:

(none)

All ingredients:

Organic Grade A Cream.

Ronnybrook Heavy Cream

Store finder (currently San Francisco and the Northeast US).

Positives:

monoglycerides / diglycerides-free
carrageenan-free

Negatives:

(none)

All ingredients:

Heavy cream.

Straus Family Creamery Organic Whipping Cream

Store finder (look for the button in the top left of the site).

Positives:

monoglycerides / diglycerides-free
carrageenan-free

Negatives:

(none)

All ingredients:

Pasteurized organic cream.

Recommended as low-additive canned creams:

The milkfat content of these (30-40% milk fat) makes them roughly equivalent to the US standard for heavy cream (36% or more).

Itambé Traditional Table Cream (Canned)

Available on Amazon

Positives:

monoglycerides / diglycerides-free
carrageenan-free

Negatives:

(none)

All ingredients:

Milk Cream, Disodium Phosphate Stabilizers.

Man, their cow mascot really creeps me out.

Nestle Creme de Leite (Canned)

Available on Amazon

Positives:

monoglycerides / diglycerides-free
carrageenan-free

Negatives:

(none)

All ingredients:

Milk Cream, Disodium Phosphate Stabilizers.

Other heavy creams

The following are other heavy creams I'm aware of, sorted alphabetically.

Name	Ingredients
C.F. Burger Creamery Heavy Whipping Cream	Whipping Cream, Carrageenan, Sodium Phosphates, Sodium Citrate, Magnesium Oxide.
Dean's Heavy Whipping Cream	Heavy Whipping Cream. Contains Less than 0.5% of: Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 80, Carrageenan.
Kroger Whipping Cream, Heavy, Ultra-Pasteurized	Heavy Cream, Skim Milk, Mono & Diglycerides, Polysorbate 80, Carrageenan.
Horizon Organic Heavy Whipping Cream	Heavy Cream, Gellan Gum. Contains Milk.
Nestle Media Crema Table Cream	Light Cream, Carrageenan, Sodium Alginate, Disodium Phosphate, Disodium Citrate. Not technically heavy cream, but some reviewers mention it being similar.
Oberweis Heavy Whipping Cream	Cream, Whole Milk, Mono & Diglycerides, Polysorbate 80, Carrageenan.
Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream (Ultrapasteurized)	Organic Grade A Cream (Milk), Gellan Gum.
Publix Ultra-Pasteurized Whipping Cream, Heavy	Heavy Cream, Carrageenan, Mono & Diglycerides, Polysorbate 80.
Publix Whipping Cream, Heavy	Heavy Cream, Carrageenan, Mono & Diglycerides, Polysorbate 80.
Trader Joe's Heavy Whipping Cream	Cream (milk), Carrageenan. Trader Joe's might be reformulating this, see the comments below
Trader Joe's Organic Heavy Whipping Cream	Organic Grade A Pasteurized Heavy Cream, Carrageenan. I haven't been able to get any answers from Trader Joe's, but as far as I can tell, the organic version has been reformulated with carrageenan in the last few months, probably nationwide.
Whole Foods 365 Heavy Cream	Heavy cream, gellan gum.