Ice cream food scientist Dr. Doug Goff is experimenting with antifreeze agent winter wheat

Low-fat, sugar-free, high-fibre ice cream that still retains all the smooth, creamy decadence of its more guilt-inducing counterpart – it seems like a recipe that could only be concocted in Willy Wonka's fictional factory. But there's a frozen-treat-obsessed scientist at the University of Guelph who may just make healthy ice cream a reality.

Doug Goff – recognized by New York magazine as the world's leading expert in ice cream – and his graduate students have been behind some of the most important innovations in the dairy product's history.

Double-churned ice cream was first developed in his lab.

He helped find a way to change the very chemical structure of soft-serve ice cream to extend its shelf life.

And now he's tinkering with winter wheat – an antifreeze agent – to make a product that can be sold at room temperature and transform into ice cream in a home freezer.