Feds: Vegan Mayo Actually Shouldn’t Be Called Mayo

The Food and Drug Administration is following through with what big mayo threatened to do in 2014: It put the kibosh on food-tech start-up Hampton Creek calling its pea protein–based sandwich spread mayonnaise.

While Hellman’s withdrew its lawsuit against Hampton Creek, which argued that a product called Just Mayo cannot be sold as mayo if it doesn’t contain eggs, the FDA is finishing what the Unilever-owned company started. According to its official standards, mayonnaise must be at least 65 percent oil and must contain some form of egg yolks — and, apparently, any vegan, post-egg disruption cannot use the same name.

“According to the standard of identity for mayonnaise, egg is a required ingredient,” the FDA letter reads. “However, based on the ingredient information on the labels, these products do not contain eggs. We also note that these products contain additional ingredients that are not permitted by the standard, such as modified food starch, pea protein, and beta-carotene, which may be used to impart color simulating egg yolk. Therefore, these products do not conform to the standard for mayonnaise.”

The letter also takes issue with the claim made on Hampton Creek packaging that Just Mayo is cholesterol-free, as well as the phrase “You’ll never find cholesterol in our products” that’s featured on its website. The FDA said the latter is “an unauthorized synonym for ‘cholesterol free.’ ”

The letter, which Hampton Creek has 15 working days to respond to, comes on the heels of a story published in Business Insider alleging other labeling issues. The story pointed out that the concentrated lemon juice used in Just Mayo is identified as “lemon juice” on the label, which is in violation of FDA standards.

Unlike other egg-less mayonnaise products, such as Vegenaise, Hampton Creek’s product isn’t being aggressively marketed as being vegan, and the company has focused on mass-market retailers like Walmart instead of specialty grocery stores where consumers often shop for more “natural” products. All of which makes the Just Mayo branding that much more important to Hampton Creek.

The company has been quiet about the FDA letter thus far, but it might want to consider making a historical argument for holding on to the term “mayonnaise.” Because despite what the FDA (and the French) say, the sauce from which mayo descends was originally made without any eggs.

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