Food Fight: Is it Really Mayo?

Parent Cafe
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<p>OMG - thank you Kajon!! My husband was just asking me what I wanted for Christmas!</p>

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<p>I may be the butt of the joke there, but I do think it was funny.</p>

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<p>Brownparent–They are naming their product “Just Mayo”. What do you think is in it? My guess would be eggs and oil but I would be way wrong. It’s more of truth in advertising than anything else.
What if you went to buy a product named “Pure Sugar” and you got soy bean dust?</p>

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<p>If someone called an artificial sweetener Pure Sugar, I would be incensed if I bought it for baking and it did not perform as sugar. When I see Just Mayo, I would expect… mayo. But is “contains eggs” essential to the definition of mayo? If mayo is defined in such a way that the definition encompasses spreads made without eggs, then the makers have a case. If this goes to trial, and the court says “an eggless product can’t be called mayo,” then they lose the food fight. But if mayo is just a oil-based sandwich spread loosely defined to include Miracle Whip and Vegenaise, then they can score a victory (my apologies to Vegenaise for confusing it with Miracle Whip earlier in the thread!)</p>

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<p>Yes. Mayonnaise is an emulsion of eggs and oil. That is what it is. If the salad dressing is not an emulsion of eggs and oil, it may be very delicious, but it is not mayonnaise, any more than tofu is beef or margarine is butter.</p>

<p>Vegenaise is not mayonnaise. That is why it is not sold as mayonnaise.</p>

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<p>yay Dukes! I was happy to see a 3-pack at Costco a short while ago</p>

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<p>CKE (Carl’s Jr) bought the existing Hardee’s about 15 years ago. Since Hardee’s had an established name in the east, there was no reason to change the name. </p>

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<p>CF, it does not matter what you and I think is or is not mayo. This is a legal feud - you would be surprised how common terms can be construed by courts! :)</p>

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<p>Veganaise sounds more like a response to Baconaise than anything . . . . mmmmmm . . . . bacon</p>

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<p>Just Mayo is really tasty. I grew up on Hellman’s and it tastes the same to me. I buy it at Whole Foods and love it as part of an eggless diet.</p>

<p>As to the trade name, "mayo’ is akin to “buttery spread” which is what many of the butter substitutes are called. It’s not “Just Mayonnaise.” </p>

<p>Restaurants all over the country call lobster caught for example in New Jersey waters “Maine Lobster.”</p>

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<p>If there’s a legal definition of mayonnaise - that’s one thing. But “mayo” is a slang form and anyone can run with that. </p>

<p>Hellman’s has shot itself in the foot. I’ve never heard of Just Mayo before all the publicity surrounding their lawsuit. Now, I went looking for it at a local health food store and found that their supply was sold out, but they had one jar left of Duke’s mayonnaise, and it was on sale! I won’t buy Hellman’s again, I don’t like the taste of bullies.</p>

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<p>Sometimes I can’t tell what’s serious and what’s not. Maine lobster caught in New Jersey waters? Buying mayo(nnaise) at a health food store? Now y’all know I don’t spend a lot of time shopping at health food stores. :wink: I’m thinking aisles of vitamins and protein mixes. Help me out here.</p>

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<p>And a significant number of lobster’s sold and shipped from docks in Maine are actually caught in Canadian waters. Most of the fresh lobsters sold in Chinatown in Lower Manhattan are in fact from Canada.</p>

<p>And the iconic North American lobster can still be fished from New York and New Jersey waters and end up on restaurant menus in the local area. And is a Baja Lobster really a lobster?</p>

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<p>I think Just Mayo will have to change its name. The idea that “mayo” isn’t a synonym of mayonnaise is a non-starter in my opinion. And the use of “Just” makes it worse, because (to me, and I predict, a court) that suggests that this is mayonnaise without a bunch of additives. Only it isn’t. This isn’t like “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.”</p>

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<p>Funny. They were sampling Just Mayo at Costco a while back. I read the list of claims on the package and wondered if it wasn’t all those things, what it could actually be, but I read the ingredients and tried it. It tastes like mayo to me. Works like mayo in salad dressings. We’ve been using it and no one has complained. The courts can sort out the name, but the startup must be doing well if they’ve grabbed the attention of their big competitors.</p>

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<p>Unless they are flown in, the lobsters in California are clawless “lobsters” called rock or spiny lobsters. It is probably an issue of semantics for most people, but such “lobsters” are not even in the same family than the “real lobsters.” </p>

<p>As far as mayo and lobsters, there is something about the combination that is irresistible … as long as both the “homard” and the mayo are real and served cold. And no Hellman’s or rock lobster will come close. What I had in Brussels:
<a href=“http://images.takeeateasy.be/mini_zoom/60_02.jpg”>http://images.takeeateasy.be/mini_zoom/60_02.jpg&lt;/a&gt; from this place:
<a href=“http://www.takeeateasy.be/fr/livraison-bruxelles/restaurant/aux-armes-de-bruxelles”>http://www.takeeateasy.be/fr/livraison-bruxelles/restaurant/aux-armes-de-bruxelles&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Those people know good food!</p>

<p>By the way, has anyone ever tried a Thanksgiving turkey that was covered in mayo for the cooking? Sounds strange on the surface but it really works! </p>

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<p>Just saw on our news that Hellman’s had to change its own website as they have some salad dressings without eggs that they were also calling mayo. <a href=“http://www.wiscnews.com/business/article_f9ffc496-e0ac-5138-826e-5e8ca9ad68ee.html”>http://www.wiscnews.com/business/article_f9ffc496-e0ac-5138-826e-5e8ca9ad68ee.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>^^ That’s hilarious. I read today that Just Mayo sales have tripled in the publicity with the lawsuit, in which, ironicallly, Unilever complains of Hampton Creek stealing market share. </p>

<p>As to the “additives” referenced earlier, here are the ingredients lists. (Caps are not mine.)
Which additives concern you?</p>

<p>Hellman’s: SOYBEAN OIL, WATER, WHOLE EGGS AND EGG YOLKS, VINEGAR, SALT, SUGAR, LEMON JUICE, CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA (USED TO PROTECT QUALITY), NATURAL FLAVORS. </p>

<p>Just Mayo: Non-GMO Expeller Pressed Canola Oil, Filtered Water, Lemon Juice, White Vinegar, 2% or less of the following: Organic Sugar, Salt, Pea Protein, Spices, Modified Food Starch, Beta-Carotene.</p>

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<p>This is not at all like getting soybeans when you buy sugar. We already get beet vs cane sugar without labeling btw. But sugar is just one ingredient, not a combined recipe. I would already know what I was getting with Just Mayo because I would be purposely seek it out because of the egg allergy situation in the house. They have advertised that it doesn’t contain eggs. I suppose if someone bought just mayo they would be getting something that looks and tastes like mayo. If they don’t like it, they can return it and never buy it again. Okay sure, it could be misleading and some people may get confused about what real mayo is. But manufactured mayo is already completely adulterated and different than real homemade real mayo. I just do not think this is an egregious situation, but sure, they were stupid to name it that. This is about market share, not protecting consumers. Can’t wait to get my hands on some.</p>

<p>Oh here’s the Veganaise article, fwiw
<a href=“Vegenaise vs. Mayonnaise: Why Vegan-substitute mayo is better than regular mayonanaise.”>http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/12/27/vegenaise_vs_mayonnaise_why_vegan_substitute_mayo_is_better_than_regular.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>“This is not at all like getting soybeans when you buy sugar. We already get beet vs cane sugar without labeling btw”</p>

<p>Beet sugar and cane sugar are very close in composition and work about the same for most purposes. Therefore, they are both “sugar”. A product can be defined by composition or by function (or sometimes both). This spread does not have the composition of mayo, so unless this company proves that their spread performs exactly like mayo in my mayo coated baked chicken recipes etc, they have not sold me on the idea that it is “just mayo.”</p>

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<p>Beet sugar and cane sugar are the exact same thing. They’re sucrose. One is refined from beets and one from sugar cane, but they are the same thing.</p>