An ice cream production apparatus comprises a control unit, a freezer, a freezer outlet pump and a piping system provided from the freezer to one or more ice cream outlet nozzles downstream the freezer, can assume at least two operational modes. The first operational mode is a production mode. The second operational mode is a pre-production mode comprising the steps of freezing the ice cream in the freezer such that the ice cream obtains a pre-production viscosity value being equal to or higher than a production viscosity value, and pumping the frozen ice cream into the piping system at a pre-production outlet flow being smaller than a production outlet flow. The pre-production mode is used for cooling the piping system and the ice cream outlet nozzles before operating the ice cream production apparatus in the production mode.