– Don’t mess with the soft ice cream!

KARL JOHAN (Dagbladet): – If you want a smaller soft ice cream, then ask for a small soft ice cream, then. It’s not worse.

Sandra Borch (Sp) grins and takes a bite of the soft ice cream Dagbladet has treated her to.

Her order was “a big one, but neither for large” soft ice cream. A little dazed, the kiosk man succeeds reasonably well with the order, according to Borch.

– We cannot have a society where the state decides how big a soft ice cream should be. People can decide that for themselves. I don’t want to get involved in that, says Borch.

Will stand outside

The big soft ice cream debate

She looks at her ice cream.

– This one, for example, it’s quite large.

In recent days, the inland problem has possibly reached new heights, even by Norwegian standards: The debate is now raging about pubs, gas stations and kiosks selling to big soft ice cream, especially for children. Was it like this, a country with enormous soft ice, which Norwegians fought so bravely during the war to preserve?

Sandra Borch smiles.

– People must be allowed to decide for themselves. Parents decide how big, and how many, ice cream the children should get. The state does not decide that, she says.

Child size

This is the first soft ice cream of the year for the Minister of Agriculture and Food. Borch is careful that the sprinkles must be strawberries, and she believes that your choice of sprinkles says a lot about you as a person.

– Jordbærstrø is an easy and free, perhaps a bit funny, person. Chocolate sprinkles – then you are undoubtedly darker in mind.

She scowls at Dagbladet’s emissary. Both have chocolate sprinkles on their suitably large softies.

– Nowadays, I only wear strawberry sprinkles, says Borch, laughing.

But back to the debate. Norway is facing many crises – inflation, interest rates, and war in Europe – but how are we going to solve the soft ice crisis?

– I think it could be an idea for many outlets to introduce children’s sizes on the soft ice cream. I hereby propose that. Then parents don’t have to worry. But I’m not going to decide that, says Borch.

Towards Mehl: – Sauces together

Food waste

It is hot in Oslo’s parade gate today. Sandra Borch’s soft ice cream has become even softer, and runs down the Minister of Agriculture’s biscuit.

She therefore does not think that too much soft drinks is a state matter, but as a true centre-party, Sandra Borch is of course concerned with food waste.

– It’s stupid if people have to throw away the soft ice cream because you can’t take it anymore. Therefore, you should rather ask for a smaller ice cream, says Borch.

Again she scowls at Dagbladet’s emissary, on her way to the bin with her half-eaten and quickly melting desserts.

– I don’t think you should throw the ice either, that is. We must take food waste seriously.

Ate off mom’s ice cream

Fire extinguisher, we return from the bin with the ice still in our fists: All for a good cause.

– A gigantic soft ice cream isn’t good for small children, Borch? And not for the stomach measure of journalists, for that matter.

– How often do you eat soft ice cream? Two, three, maybe four, times a year? After all, this is not where the biggest challenges for public health lie. Of course, people do well to think about what they ingest – we all have to do that. But as I said, if you are worried, you can ask for a little less ice cream, she says.

And finally a heartbreaking story from Borch’s own upbringing, often devoid of both large and small soft ice cream.

– When I was little I was given a spoon and could help myself to some of my mother’s soft ice cream. Then I got exactly the right amount. I trust that parents know best themselves what their children should and should not eat, says Borch.