Just Mayo will stay ‘Just Mayo’ despite lack of eggs in product

Since Just Mayo doesn’t contain eggs, the words “Egg Free” will have to be bigger and be featured a little higher up for ease of identification.

In August, vegan food company Hampton Creek, maker of Just Mayo, received a warning from the Food and Drug Administration.

Just Mayo has seen explosive growth, not just at upscale stores but at mass chain like Walmart, which now sells more of the product than Whole Foods.

The new label clearly states that Just Mayo does not contain eggs.

It sent a warning letter to the food company “Hampton Creek” in August, warning the product was misbranded, because mayonnaise has eggs. The FDA said it “considers the issues cited in the warning letter to be resolved and will issue a close out letter soon”.

However, it did sppear that the FDA will now allow a food product to expressly disclaim its statement of identity on the front of the label, David Ter Molen, a partner in the Chicago offices of law firm Freeborn & Peters LLP, told us: “Mayo is plainly a synonym for mayonnaise and a product bearing that name as its Statement of Identity should plainly conform with the FDA’s definition of mayonnaise”. One change was to increase the size of all claims on the label, including “Egg Free”.

Allegations of improper product testing and workplace practices at Hampton Creek also surfaced earlier this year, putting the startup on the defensive.

So popular was Just Mayo, in fact, that in November 2014, Unilever, parent company of market leader Hellmann’s, sued Hampton Creek for false advertising and unfair competition. Unilever dropped the lawsuit about a month later “as consumers heaped scorn on the company for what they viewed as a frivolous lawsuit”, the food industry news site Food Dive reported. They showed that the industry group had tried to stop Whole Foods from selling Just Mayo-and that Egg Board members were really worked up over Hampton Creek. FDA spokesperson Lauren Kotwicki confirmed the news and told BuzzFeed News by email, “The company committed to making labeling changes to ensure its products are labeled in a manner that is truthful and not misleading”. It’s a story about creating a just food system.

“I feel pretty proud about it”, Hampton Creek CEO Josh Tetrick said about the agreement, which he said was finalized last night. Since mayonnaise is standardized and Just Mayo doesn’t strictly adhere to the traditional recipe, the broader product category “Spread and Dressing” will now have to be printed in larger and all-capital letters.

Pape said that the formula for Just Mayo is not changing, and that the other labeling issues have been resolved.