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Just Mayo is an egg substitute mayonnaise-like produced by Eat Just, Inc, formerly known as Hampton Creek. Just Mayo was first released in Northern California Whole Foods Markets on September 19, 2013. Just Mayo comes in original, wasabi, truffle, sesame ginger, garlic, chipotle and sriracha flavors. It has been described as "a vegan spread that has rattled the egg industry."

History

Just Mayo was formulated in 2011 by Josh Tetrick, who invested $37,000 into the business of finding a cheaper alternative to eggs through his ventures Beyond Eggs and Hampton Creek. In 2014, Hampton Creek purchased hundreds of bottles of its own mayonnaise from grocery stores across the United States, and instructed contractors to place calls inquiring about products as customers to increase the perceived popularity of its products. The company was renamed JUST, inc. in 2017. Bill Gates and Li Ka-shing became backers of the company.

Just Mayo does not contain eggs; the formula took approximately two years to create. The research and development team at Hampton Creek screened 1,500 plants before discovering eleven that were suitable for the emulsification purposes in a mayonnaise. The plant that replaces the egg in Just Mayo is a specific variety of the Canadian yellow field pea (a type of split pea).

Production and distribution milestones

In October 2013, Just Mayo was produced by a copacker located in Seattle and Tennessee and distributed to Whole Foods across the United States by distribution company United Natural Foods.

In October 2014, Just Mayo was available in at least six grocery store chains in the United States, including Whole Foods, Kroger, Safeway, ShopRite, Target and Costco.

By early 2019, the product was extremely hard to find and not carried in any of these retailers, but distribution improved in the second half of the year.

While Just Mayo was still listed on the Eat Just website as of November 12, 2020, as of December 2020 all products (with the exception of Just Egg) had been removed from the website.

Labelling controversy

In 2014, Unilever (parent company of competing brand Hellmann's/Best Foods) filed a lawsuit against Hampton Creek for false advertising, arguing that Just Mayo cannot be marketed as mayonnaise because it does not meet the definition of the product specified by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA requires that "mayonnaise" contain 65% vegetable oil and at least one egg yolk-containing ingredient; Just Mayo contains ingredients such as pea protein, beta-carotene, and modified food starch, none of which are used in mayonnaise according to FDA standards. Unilever also noted the use of egg-oriented imagery in its promotional materials, and stated that its false claims were "part of a larger campaign and pattern of unfair competition by Hampton Creek to falsely promote Just Mayo spread as tasting better than, and being superior to, Best Foods and Hellmann's mayonnaise." Hampton Creek CEO Josh Tetrick denied any wrongdoing, believing that Unilever's lawsuit was meant to solely hinder competition. Unilever ultimately dropped the lawsuit so Hampton Creek could work with "industry groups and appropriate regulatory authorities" on resolving its labelling, while also complimenting the company for its "commitment to innovation and its inspired corporate purpose."

In August 2015, the FDA sent Hampton Creek a formal warning that Just Mayo's labeling was misleading due to the product not meeting the standards for "mayonnaise", and because of wording on the packaging and promotional materials that contained an "implied health claim that these products can reduce the risk of heart disease due to the absence of cholesterol," which cannot be included as it contains too much fat to be promoted with such statements.

In December 2015, Hampton Creek announced that it had agreed to revise its packaging for Just Mayo in order to comply with the FDA's recommendations. The new label contains more prominent statements surrounding the nature of the product, and contains an explanation that the word "Just" in the product's name is defined as being "guided by reason, justice, and fairness."

In October 2016, it was reported that the American Egg Board and its affiliates "launched a secret two-year war against the vegan mayonnaise competitor", spending at least $59,500 to counter publicity about Just Mayo's products. This led to a federal investigation by the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service, which condemned the American Egg Board "for overstepping its congressional mandate."

See also

• List of brand name condiments
• List of mayonnaises

• Food

References

1. United States Food and Drug Administration (2024). "Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels". FDA. Archived from the original on 2024-03-27. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
2. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Food and Nutrition Board; Committee to Review the Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium (2019). "Chapter 4: Potassium: Dietary Reference Intakes for Adequacy". In Oria, Maria; Harrison, Meghan; Stallings, Virginia A. (eds.). Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium. The National Academies Collection: Reports funded by National Institutes of Health. Washington, DC: National Academies Press (US). pp. 120–121. doi:10.17226/25353. ISBN 978-0-309-48834-1. PMID 30844154. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
3. Blackstone, John (September 20, 2013). "Cracking the egg: Food innovators at Calif. start-up seek egg alternatives". CBSNews.com. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
4. "Despite lack of eggs, Just Mayo keeping its name". Times Union. 23 December 2015. Retrieved 2016-01-22.
5. Mac, Ryan. "Bill Gates' Food Fetish: Hampton Creek Foods Looks To Crack The Egg Industry". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
6. "Hampton Creek Ran Undercover Project to Buy Up Its Own Vegan Mayo". Bloomberg. 4 August 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
7. Zimberoff, Larissa (2021). Inside Silicon Valley's Mission to Change What We Eat. Abrams Press. pp. ch 3. ISBN 978-1419747090.
8. "Hampton Creek Has Ditched Its Name, And Is Now "Just."". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
9. Mac, Ryan. "Bill Gates-Backed Food Startup Hampton Creek Begins To Come Out Of Shell, Make Money". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
10. Hamshaw, Gena (July 28, 2013). "Beyond Eggs: A Profile of Hampton Creek Foods. Plus My Recipe for Vegan, Gluten Free Curried Tofu Salad". Choosingraw.com. non-GMO, gluten free and made via expeller-pressed oil.
11. "Bill Gates' Food Fetish: Hampton Creek Foods Looks To Crack The Egg Industry". Forbes.com. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
12. VanHemert, Kyle (December 10, 2013). "Hampton Creek Foods Reinvents the Egg—and Cookie Dough". Wired.com. Condé Nast Digital.
13. "Dry Pea - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)". Archived from the original on 2015-10-03. Retrieved 2015-09-07.
14. "Just Mayo hits the big time". Fortune. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
15. ^ Tuttle, Brad. "Lawsuit Could Force Upstart Condiment Brand to Hold the 'Mayo'". Money. Archived from the original on November 11, 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
16. Wong, Venessa (October 22, 2013). "How a Vegan Mayo Maker Bulks Up for Whole Foods". Forbes.com. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013. had to find a manufacturing partner with more capacity than Hampton Creek's 2,400-square-foot facility; Tetrick found one in the Pacific Northwest. With distributor United Natural Foods, Tetrick's team started doing test runs to every region that contained a Whole Foods.
17. Lopez-Alt, Kenji. "Serious Eats". Seriouseats.com.
18. Starostinetskaya, Anna. "Veg News". VegNews.com.
19. "Just Mayo Product Page". Archived from the original on November 12, 2020.
20. "Eat Just Website". Archived from the original on December 16, 2020.
21. Kaplan, Sarah (18 December 2015). "How little 'Just Mayo' took on Big Egg and won". Washington Post. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
22. ^ "Warning Letter - Hampton Creek Foods 8/12/15". FDA. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
23. "Big Food's weird war over the meaning of mayonnaise, America's top condiment". Washington Post. 10 November 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
24. Pierson, David. "Unilever drops lawsuit against vegan mayonnaise maker". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
25. Gasparro, Annie (17 December 2015). "Just Mayo Reaches Agreement With FDA to Keep Name, Change Label". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
26. Shanker, Deena (2015-12-17). "The FDA has decided that vegan Just Mayo is actually mayo after all". Quartz. Retrieved 2015-12-18.
27. Mohan, Geoffrey (7 October 2016). "The egg industry launched a secret two-year war against a vegan mayonnaise competitor". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 3 April 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.

External links

• Official website

• Brand name condiments
• Mayonnaise
• Hampton Creek
• Vegan cuisine