HB trying to make your ice cream melt more slowly

The current bout of good weather has brought with it a conundrum. How do you eat your ice-cream before it melts all over you?

Unilever, the maker of HB, is trying to solve the problem by developing a non-melt ice-cream. "It's a work in progress," according to Klaus Kutsehera, HB's marketing manager.

"The technology may be available in 2007 or maybe later," he said.

"We haven't decided yet on the roll-out, but it's something that we have been investigating for a while, at least for the last two years."

Mr Kutsehera said melting ice-cream was not a major problem with Unilever's consumers.

"It's not a reason to stop eating ice-cream, but it would certainly help, especially for kids, if you could make it slower-melting so that the clothes are not getting dirty."

The good news is that your ice-cream will continue to melt today as Met Éireann is forecasting afternoon temperatures ranging from 20 to 27 degrees.

Meteorologist Michael McAuliffe said the weather was set to change tomorrow with some showers predicted for the west and southwest later in the day.