What’s a holiday dinner without whipped cream on your pie or a dollop on your after-dinner drink or coffee?

You might have to make due without it or make it yourself this year. There is a nationwide canned whipped cream shortage underway that is impacting supplies, according to news reports.

An explosion in August at an Airgas chemical plant in Florida is behind the shortage. The explosion destroyed a nitrous oxide holding tank.

Nitrous oxide is needed in canned whipped topping, but it also has medical uses, in some dental procedures for example, and those come first, Reddi-wip maker Conagra Foods told several news outlets.

The nitrous oxide shortage is affecting other whipped-topping products, too.

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