Industrial sourcing · China to Europe

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Buyer guide · Food & candy

Ice cream production line from China

An ice cream line is quoted in litres per hour without saying litres of what, mix going in or aerated ice cream coming out, and with overrun the two can differ by half.

Ask about this machine ↗Where the numbers come from

Written and listings checked 30 September 2026. Every figure on this page names its source.

What you are actually comparing.

Two quotes, one machine name

What hides inside the price

Scope

Mix preparation (blending, pasteurising, homogenising, ageing), continuous freezer, forming, hardening. Listings often price one piece and call it a line.

Continuous freezer

Capacity, overrun range, dasher and barrel design. Ask at what overrun and draw temperature capacity was measured.

Forming

Cup and cone filling, stick moulding, or extrusion onto a tray. Each is a different machine.

Hardening

Tunnel or blast freezer, often outside the quote, and the step that fixes texture.

Refrigerant

Ammonia, CO2 or a fluorinated gas. The F-gas Regulation (EU) 2024/573 limits which gases a new system can use and who may service it.

Before you ask for a price.

Send these with the enquiry. Without them, any number a factory gives you is a guess dressed as a quotation.

Product: cups, cones, sticks, tubs, with inclusions or sauces.
Output as finished pieces or litres of ice cream per hour, at a stated overrun.
Whether you make mix or buy it liquid.
Existing refrigeration plant, or refrigeration in scope.
Room temperatures, floor drains and power at your site.

Turn the claim into a demonstration.

Require this	A pass looks like
Run your mix through the freezer at stated capacity.	Overrun and draw temperature inside the offer, overrun checked by weighing a known volume.
Forming run, a counted series.	Piece weight spread inside tolerance and broken sticks or cones below the agreed count.
Mix pasteuriser run with its recorder.	Logged temperature at setpoint for the whole hold, with under-heated mix diverted.

The documents that must arrive with it.

EU Declaration of Conformity per machine and for the joined line.
Refrigerant type, charge and circuit documents.
Food contact declarations under Regulation (EC) 1935/2004.

The one people forget. Refrigerant charge and circuit data. A certified contractor in your country needs them before servicing the system.

When this is the wrong machine.

Buy something else if

Named, not hedged

You serve soft ice from a shop counter.

A soft serve machine.

You make artisan batches of many flavours.

A batch freezer and a blast freezer.

Where the numbers come from.

We name the kind of source, how many and when, and never the factory. Listed prices are asking prices, not landed cost. Where we do not hold a fact we say so: that is a GAP, not an estimate.

Listings · 19Nineteen ice cream production line listings, checked September 2026, advertised US$3,800 to US$200,000; three stated a capacity. Asking prices, not landed cost.
Listings · 3Those three, checked September 2026: 1,000 L/h at US$28,000, 300 L/h at US$56,666 to US$80,000, and an extrusion line with hardening tunnel at 600 pieces an hour for US$60,000 to US$180,000. None said whether litres meant mix or ice cream.
ArithmeticAt 100 percent overrun, 1 L of mix x 2 = 2 L of ice cream, so 1,000 L/h of ice cream may be only 500 L/h of mix.
GAPGAP - no supplier quotations logged for this machine yet. Three to five quotations for one configuration would give a real price spread.

Related machines.

Dairy pasteurizer. Choose it if you only need to pasteurise mix and already own freezing equipment.
Yogurt filling machine. Choose it if your product is cultured and filled cold, not frozen.

Every machine we source in this area is on the Food & candy page. How a project runs, stage by stage, is on how it works, and what it costs is on pricing.

Straight answers

Questions buyers ask about this machine.

Chinese vs European ice cream production line?+

Continuous freezers carry the know-how. A used European freezer with a service record may beat a new one without local support.

Ice cream production line factory audit?+

Freezer running on real mix, overrun measured, hardening shown, refrigerant named, and pasteuriser records.

Ice cream production line EU compliance?+

2006/42/EC, or Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 from 20 January 2027. Pressure parts of the refrigeration circuit may fall under 2014/68/EU. Contact parts fall under Regulation (EC) 1935/2004.

Who is the EU importer?+

The EU business placing the line on the market, which carries its name and checks the file.

Contact

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