By JANE TOMEK

That melting bowl of luscious strawberry ice cream waiting to be devoured is brimming with healthful, nutritional foods: ripe, succulent strawberries; fresh, whole milk; grade AA eggs; right? Unfortunately, in America today, wrong.

Today's ice cream is a chemist's dream. Some of the ingredients in an average carton include: buffers, coal tar dyes, imitation flavorings, neutralizers, sufracants, anti‑oxidants, stabalizers, bactericides and emulsifiers, not to mention the high sugar and fat contents.

Nearly all strawberry ice cream contains not one single strawberry. Instead, artificial ones are created via the test-tube. For its citrusy flavor, pineapple ice cream contains ethyl acetate, a chemical used as leather cleaner which also provokes lung, liver, and heart diseases. If those sound unpalatable, imagine what choice synthetics compose "raspberry mocha" ice cream.

An artificial vanilla flavor, piperal, used in practically all ice cream, doubles as a rat killer, while ice cream's emulsifiers are used as anti‑freezes and paint removers. Many of the chemicals found in ice cream have been proven to cause cancer in humans.

Yet, on the average carton of ice cream only one vague term represents its multitude of chemical ingredients: "artificial flavoring." And, this term is all that is required on the package according to a now expired but still in use amendment of the Food and Drug Administration.

No freshness date is required on the carton, either. For all he knows, the unsuspecting consumer could purchase ice cream which is six months old.

Citizens should demand the FDA endorses the manufacturers with whole‑hearted approval.

How can this be so? Remember, cyclamates were once legal, too.