Adding protein to ice cream makes it melt slower?? 🍦🍧🍨🧁

Was recently rewatching Culinary Class Wars (S1 E4), and one of the contestants was eliminated - his ice cream dish was critiqued to be a little 'off'.

He explained that he tweaked the recipe to incorporate a higher protein content (more eggs) in fear that the ice cream would melt too fast during the judging process. The judges also seemed quite clear on what went down as well - so that got me thinking is this common knowledge among chefs? ∘ ∘ ∘ ( °ヮ° ) ?

🧪 A quick search on Google led me to quite the scientific exploration of the process and chemistry of ice cream melting.

The Science of Ice Cream Meltdown and Structural Collapse: A Comprehensive Review

Proteins in ice cream not only contribute to its nutritional value but also play a key role in stabilizing the air–water (A/W) and oil‐water (O/W) interfaces, thereby influencing fat destabilization. The thickness of protein coverage on the O/W interface, the ability of the proteins to reduce interfacial tension, and the extent of surface coverage all play crucial roles in determining the degree of partial coalescence under the influence of shear forces during freezing. In the realm of dairy ice cream, whey protein and casein are the primary proteins influencing fat stabilization.

Notably, ice cream containing 10% protein forms an exceptionally stable emulsion, with no observed fat destabilization. 💪

Though I couldn't really find anything pertaining to egg proteins in particular --