A stick inserter for inserting ice cream sticks into frozen ice cream mass is disclosed, the stick inserter comprising a pusher guide arranged to hold a pile of ice cream sticks and guide the motion of the ice cream sticks when they move from the pusher guide into the frozen ice cream mass, a pusher plate arranged to reciprocate so that, when the pusher plate moves in a first direction, it pushes an ice cream stick of the pile out of the pusher guide, and when the pusher plate moves in the opposite, second direction, the next ice cream stick in the pile may move into position for being pushed out of the pusher guide, and a linear actuator driving the reciprocating motion of the pusher plate, wherein the linear actuator is arranged to be driven by an alternating electromagnetic field.
