Nourishing and diet desserts include ice cream of which dairy ice cream is most often consumed. This type of ice cream is a valuable source of protein and calcium in the diet. Compared to other desserts, dairy ice cream is characterised by a lower calorific value. Dairy ice cream can be a dessert proposal to obese people or to those with diabetes provided, however that the content of  white sugar therein is reduced or some sucrose substitutes are used. The desirable features of ice cream both for the ice cream industry and the consumers are fluffiness and low meltability. The  objective of the study was to determine the potential of using sugar substitutes and their effect on the aeration degree and meltability of medium-hard dairy ice cream. The tested material  consisted of medium-hard dairy ice cream with sucrose as a benchmark and with added sugar substitutes, such as maltitol, xylitol, erythritol and stevia. There was determined the degree of  aeration [%] and the total melting time [min] of the ice cream studied as was their dry matter; the ice cream studied underwent a sensory evaluation. The dairy ice cream with sucrose was  characterised by the highest degree of aeration and was successively followed by the ice cream with stevia, xylitol and maltitol. The ice cream with erythritol was characterised by the lowest  fluffiness. The meltability of the ice cream analysed was correlated with their fluffiness – the more aerated the ice cream was, the slower they melted, except for the ice cream with the maltitol  added. The dairy ice cream with sucrose melted the slowest, then successively with maltitol, stevia and xylitol; the ice cream with erythritol melted at the fastest rate. The ice cream with stevia  was characterised by the most desirable parameters in terms of aeration degree and melting rate. According to the sensory evaluation the dairy ice cream with xylitol was the best and it was  followed by the ice cream with sucrose, maltitol and stevia. The lowest overall sensory evaluation score was given to the dairy ice cream with erythritol.