Before my vegan days I had been a Hellman’s brand loyal customer
I thought my Mayo days were over until I discovered Hampton Creek and their JUST Mayo, vegan mayonnaise.
Then came the lawsuit from Hellman’s to Hampton Creek as they were claiming this new vegan mayo could not be labeled as “mayo” since there are no eggs in the recipe.
This gained mass media attention and eventually the lawsuit was dropped.
In the end, all it really did was make Hellman’s look bad and turned many people off from Hellman’s brands and Unilever Foods, as it was a clear bullying move on their part to try to stamp out what they knew would be a very lethal competitor to their #1 selling condiment.
You can read the entire article about the lawsuit here.
Fast forward to 2019 and Hampton Creek is now known as JUST Inc. and their products have expanded from the infamous Vegan Mayonnaise to a line of salad dressings including the most popular Ranch, Ceasar and Chipotle.
And now their newest and most proud creation (or so it seems) is JUST Egg.
An egg substitute that scrambles, tastes and looks just like real eggs!
So you can say JUST Inc. is making some major moves in the vegan food world!
You can imagine my disappointment when I found out recently about their ethics violation in regards to vegan labeling.
It turns out JUST Inc performed animal testing that was not mandatory, but optional and they chose to do it anyway.
So for me, this part of the “story” is relatively new news.
But for those people who banned Hellman’s for their ridiculous lawsuit, have now banned Just for their unethical practices under a vegan label.
Now back to the main issue of the case of the disappearing mayonnaise.
I really can’t say whether any of these legal and ethical bombshells have anything to do with the recent scarcity of the mayonnaise.
can it be a coincidence that the lab testing news came at the same time that virtually all JUST products (the mayo & the dressings) slowly started disappearing off the shelves and instead there was Hellman’s VEGAN in it’s place?
Yep, the same company that went after the little guy in an attempt to create laws stating that the only way a mayonnaise could be labeled as mayonnaise could be if it has eggs in the recipe, has now developed their own line of vegan mayo.
As the old saying goes: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!
Now I do love a good conspiracy and I would wage a bet to say there is something to this whole theory I have that Hellman’s could not let a sleeping dog lie, and has come back with a vengeance against JUST Inc. for this whole scandal in the first place, but maybe that’s just my skeptical nature.
It would actually make some sense (given the tactics several folks at Unilver & the American Egg Board were willing to take to stop Just in the first place) except that now Hellman’s Vegan Mayo is non existent as well!
There is surely something fishy going on with this whole story.
I contacted both Just Inc. & Hellman’s customer service departments asking if there was a reason I could not get the mayonnaise (or ranch dressing) anymore in all of the stores in my area (5 stores total that I typically shop all are out of stock!) and I was told by both companies almost the exact same statement:
“We are indeed still making and distributing the products, if you are no longer seeing it stocked in your grocery store this would be a store decision and you should contact the store manager for an answer.”
Hmmmmm…….
But the plot thickens: The supermarkets are now overflowing with pallets, and I mean literal pallets of non vegan Hellman’s.
So much so, that they are storing these giant towers of original style mayo at the ends of the aisles in my local Shop Rite because they just can’t fit it all on the shelves!
Sure, we are gearing up for outdoor cookouts and party food that typically consists of bowls and bowls of potato salads and macaroni salads all made with gobs and gobs of mayonnaise.
But why then is the Hellman’s vegan line completely eliminated too?
There has not been a Vegan Hellman’s jar for miles around and not only in my area (New Jersey) but several other people are claiming it has all disappeared from their grocery shelves in states all across the country!
So again, I’ll say there is definitely something fishy going on in the underground world of mayonnaise politics and it will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.
In the meantime I ain’t got time for this foolishness!
I NEED MY MAYO!
Goodbye Hellman’s & Just Inc.; it was nice knowing ya… I hope you figure out your little scuffle soon, but by then we will all be making own own mayonnaise and at a fraction of the cost too!
CLICK HERE FOR THE YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE ALL THE VEGAN MAYONNAISE RECIPES
Leave a Reply