(NATIONAL) — As the heat keeps on coming in Southern Colorado, some people are going to be cooling down with ice cream. But while you are enjoying your frosty treat, think more about the ingredients than the day’s temperature, as it turns out that heat has less to do with how fast ice cream melts than ingredients do.

According to a research study in the Journal of Dairy Science, there are several ingredients that cause ice cream to melt quickly. They include the amount of fat content in the ice cream, how much air has been mixed into it, sugar content, the presence of certain stabilizers, and storage conditions.

The study states that the higher the fat content and the more air in the mixture of the ice cream, the slower it will melt. Higher fat content, like in premium brands of ice cream, causes it to melt more slowly, because fat helps trap air and insulate ice crystals. However, lower-fat frosty treats like sorbet and frozen yogurt melt faster because they contain more water and less stabilizing fats.

As for sugary ice creams, the Journal of Dairy Science says that higher sugar content can actually make the ice cream melt faster.

There are things you can do at home to make the ice cream melt more slowly, besides just buying a higher-fat-content and lower-sugar ice cream. You can actually store ice cream in smaller containers, because smaller containers freeze more evenly and prevent temperature fluctuations. You can also store it all the way in the back of the freezer, which is the appliance’s coldest part, and this will help keep the temperatures from fluctuating.