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Title: Mayo-Gate: Feds try to take down eggless mayonnaise company
Source:
The Guardian
URL Source: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ ... -board-hampton-creek-just-mayo
Published: Sep 2, 2015
Author: Sam Thielman & Dominic Rushe
Post Date: 2015-09-05 17:31:24 by Operation 40
Keywords: Mayonnaise, USDA, Eggs
Views: 2940
Comments: 28
Government-backed egg lobby tried to crack food startup, emails show The Guardian September 2, 2015 USDA official joined American Egg Board in planning to ruin Hampton Creek, Silicon Valley firm that created plant-based egg alternative and Just Mayo A US government-appointed agricultural body tried to crush a Silicon Valley food startup after concluding the company represented a “major threat” and “crisis” for the $5.5bn-a-year egg industry, according to documents obtained by the Guardian. In potential conflict with rules that govern how it can spend its funds, the American Egg Board (AEB) lobbied for a concerted attack on Hampton Creek, a food company that has created a low-cost plant-based egg replacement and the maker of Just Mayo, a mayonnaise alternative. In a series of emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (Foia), AEB staff, a US department of agriculture official and egg industry executives attempted to orchestrate the attack. The documents were obtained by Ryan Shapiro, a Foia expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Shapiro’s Washington DC-based Foia-specialist attorney, Jeffrey Light, and passed to Hampton Creek. Among the efforts coordinated between the AEB, the USDA and the egg industry: The Department of Agriculture’s national supervisor of shell eggs joined the AEB in its attack on Hampton Creek, suggesting Ivy contact the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) directly about Just Mayo with her concerns. The FDA later ruled Just Mayo must change its name. The AEB attempted to have Just Mayo blocked from Whole Foods, asking Anthony Zolezzi, a partner at private equity firm Pegasus Capital Advisors and self-described “eco-entrepreneur”, to use his influence with Whole Foods to drop the product. (Whole Foods still sells Just Mayo.) More than one member of the AEB made joking threats of violence against Hampton Creek’s founder, Josh Tetrick. “Can we pool our money and put a hit on him?” asked Mike Sencer, executive vice-president of AEB member organization Hidden Villa Ranch. Mitch Kanter, executive vice-president of the AEB, jokingly offered “to contact some of my old buddies in Brooklyn to pay Mr. Tetrick a visit”. The AEB’s research arm, the Egg Nutrition Center (ENC), tested the strength of Hampton Creek’s patent for its egg replacer, Beyond Eggs, using a consultant, Gilbert Leveille. Leveille concluded that the patent was “not very strong and could be easily challenged with an alternate product”, he said in an email to Kanter. “Were I in your position I would focus on nutritional quality and on the emerging science, much of which ENC has sponsored,” Leveille wrote. The emails, totalling 600 pages, show the AEB has become deeply concerned about Hampton Creek. The San Francisco-based tech company has attracted $120m in funding from some of tech’s biggest names, including the Founders Fund, started by Facebook backer Peter Thiel, and Vinod Khosla’s Khosla Ventures. The AEB represents egg farmers across the US and its board is selected by the secretary of agriculture. This year the politically connected AEB provided 14,000 eggs for the White House’s annual Easter egg roll and Ivy was photographed with President Barack Obama... ..snip read more- http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/02/usda-american-egg-board-hampton-creek-just-mayo Just Mayo: Egg group scrambled over eggless mayo maker http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_28747183/just-mayo-egg-group-scrambled-over-eggless-mayo For those who would say "You can't call eggless mayo mayo" how about this? 
The American Egg Board provided 14,000 eggs for the annual White House Easter egg
roll this year. Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP 
Outgoing AEB head Joanne Ivy advised Unilever on how to proceed against Hampton Creek after the food giant filed a false advertising lawsuit against its rival last year.
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#1. To: Deckard (#0)
Yer Tax Dollars at Work!
I have actually been using that stuff on sandwiches and wife put it in something she made, a broccoli salad, and I had no idea it wasn't mayonnaise. I bought it, thought it was mayo, and it tastes just like it. I like it just fine IOW. It's also a bit cheaper.
Mayo is a product associated with raw egg ingredients. This is why Miracle Whip is considered a salad dressing and not a mayonnaise even though Miracle Whip is often called a mayonnaise informally and substituted for real mayonnaise in many recipes. Miracle Whip may not contain eggs but it is less dangerous as far as food poisoning if you can't refrigerate sandwiches or potato salad on a hot day. So Miracle Whip is not mayo but it has its place and still fills a valuable niche for consumers. This is different than, for instance, France insisting that real champagne only can come from their Champagne region. Various champagnes made from grapes in other parts of the world are still fundamentally the same fizzy product made from the same ingredients and by the same fermentation process. But with this new fake mayo, it does not contain the vital ingredient of mayonnaise: raw egg yolks. The Oxford dictionary:
I always use Miracle Whip instead of mayo.
If you read the full Guardian article there is more than just a word on a label involved here. And if you look at the second picture in the OP you will find an example of a product that is labeled "BUTTER" but is "Not Butter". And by the way, labels don't seem to be terriby important to the Feds, at least in some cases. Millions and millions of people are eating GMO food every day and haven't a clue about it because Monsanto and others have lobbied against labels and the government is nowhere to be found. This makes former Monsanto executive and present Commissioner of the FDA Michael Taylor and friends very happy. Did you know that almost all candy made in the US has GMO ingredients?
OMG !!!!!!!!!! I've tried Just Mayo . It is a good tasting product .But it doesn't taste or look like mayonnaise. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
And yet congress in cahoots with Monsanto has decided that it is not in our best interest to have GMO foods labeled as such. In a Cop Culture, the Bill of Rights Doesn’t Amount to Much But the name "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" announces that it is not a butter product. And the company's ad campaigns have emphasized this over the years. The brand is a margarine that claims to have as much flavor as real butter, a non-butter replacement for actual butter. But this new mayo-clone does not similarly disavow being legit mayonnaise. It proclaims in its name, "Just Mayo", that it actually is mayonnaise. I can't help you if you don't see the difference between the two. Did you know that almost all candy made in the US has GMO ingredients? The issue of GMOs is separate from integrity in product labeling and naming standards. There is a need to keep names of foods meaningful, so that soy milk is not sold as dairy milk under a name like "Just Milk". Or so (dairy) milk cannot be sold as soy milk under a name like "Just Soy Milk". As far as the Reese's goes, notice that the labeling of "Peanut Butter Cups" is accurate in that it is a creamy ground peanut filling and peanuts are the primary ingredient in the peanut butter core of a Reese's cup.
Monsanto is plenty evil (probably the single most hated corporation in history) but GMOs are a distraction on a thread that is fundamentally about accuracy in food labeling. A related recent bit of food news is about a fairly new egg replacement product. DailyMail, 2013: And to bring it back to the GMO topic, if consumers have a right to know the GMO contents of their foods, then don't they have the right to know that something that calls itself "Just Mayo" is actually 100% mayonnaise instead of being 0% mayonnaise? Food names need to mean what they say because consumers are really lousy about reading labels.
It did occur to me later that I failed to cite another product, Dream Whip. It contains the word "whip" but does not contain "cream" even though "dream" cleverly does rhyme with "cream". Dream Whip, whipped cream, it's a commercial mnemonic, to help people remember the name brand. But Dream Whip never contains in its name a claim to be whipped cream, just a strong suggestion that it is similar to whipped cream. Cool Whip, another fake whipped cream and its cousin Miracle Whip, both iconic Kraft brands for decades, do not claim to be whipped cream or mayonnaise in their names or labels or in their decades of advertising. And yet we now have this product now called "Just Mayo" but which actually contains 0% mayonnaise? Also, in surveying the mayo market, there is Hellman's. More precisely, its flagship product is named Hellman's Real Mayonnaise. Hellman's absolutely emphasized that it is real mayonnaise. And now it is expected to compete with a "Just Mayo" that contains 0% mayonnaise? Doesn't the public have a right to know in a prominent way (like the product name) what is in the product? The name itself is actually a lie because the product calling itself "Just Mayo" contains 0% mayonnaise.
and even more deceptive ,it's logo is the shape of an egg.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I find the words more deceptive than a picture. It's fine to have substitutes for butter or margarine or whipped cream. But we need to differentiate real products from their imitators. Generally we do a fairly good job at basic food labeling and naming. This "Just Mayo" advertising fraud is a rare and egregious exception.
Just Mayo is sold in Wal-Mart, I bought one, brought it home, looked at the ingredients, found canola, and returned it for a full refund. What has the mayonnaise industry so concerned is that so many are, like me, making my own at home using organic ingredients at a cost of about 50 cents per two cups. It's cheap, it's easy, and it is 100% better than anything on the market and no chemicals.
I think this is a Hellman's protection racket. The egg producers sell to Hellman's, the only big mayonnaise supplier. They don't want Hellman's to have to compete against "Just Mayo" which is likely to hurt their egg sales to Hellman's. I would be surprised if Hellman's was not behind these angry egg producers raising a ruckus over "Just Mayo".
I use eggs that are under two days old. Home made is so good, compared to the others.
Many commercial condiments are all about the convenience. Fresh homemade is cheaper and tastes better and top cooks will always make their own from scratch rather than buy some Hellman's mayonnaise just to save a few minutes of prep time.
Yup, it's fast, it's good, and while not staying as 'unseperated' as long as the commercial stuff, is, I would bet, a whole lot better for you.
Certainly, there will be a market for the quick and easy. How else will people have the time to tweet and post drivel on Facebook? But let mayo be mayo and let all other imitations be labelled as imitation products.
The inside scoop is, the Feds are bitching about a product that is marketed for the vegan, tree hugging PETA assholes... as being eggless, yet they have a picture of an egg on the label. Not the vast conspiracy the article would like you to believe. Put eggs in your shitty Michelle O'bunghole product... or take the fucking egg off the label. It's false advertising I'm the infidel... Allah warned you about. كافر المسلح
I hate Miracle Whip. I only use Hellman's Mayonaise.
It doesn't say it is mayonaise. It says it is mayo. I can see both sides. As for the "I can't believe it's not butter". That product is good, tastes just like butter. Maybe they should name it "I can't believe it's not mayonaise". Or maybe they should just leave it.
Fine. It still says in the name that it is not butter. Change the name of "Just Mayo" to "Not Mayo" or "I Can't Believe It's Not Mayo" or even "Better Than Mayo" and I'll stop kvetching about it.
I think that we tend to like whatever our moms used to make our food when we were kids.
My mom used both. My wife says she can't tell the difference between mayonaise and miracle whip. I think she just doesn't use it that much to tell the difference. We never have any Miracle Whip in our refrig.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/ Do they inspect eggs? Or heal them? Or maybe they heal mayonaise.
Do they inspect eggs? Or heal them? Or maybe they heal mayonaise. As long as they do not have a mayo-free clinic, I don't object to them calling themselves the Mayo Clinic. No, I'm not going to let it rest. : )
I probably wouldn't have tried that just mayo stuff. I only use Hellmans not the generic stuff. Tried the generic a few times and not as good. Maybe I'll buy a jar and give it a taste.
Heretic! Like I care all that much about mayonnaise anyway. My mom raised us on Miracle Whip. And the biblical certainty we would all die horribly of food poisoning if we ate one bite of a potato salad made with raw-eggs (even though she had plenty of hardboiled eggs diced into her potato salad). My mom was deathly afraid of salmonella. I don't care about true mayo at all but I do care about integrity in food labeling and naming. Because people are too stupid to even read the labels for the most part. It is important that food brands should not be an outright lie, as "Just Mayo" clearly is.
#2. To: Operation 40 (#0)
#3. To: Operation 40 (#0)
In potential conflict with rules that govern how it can spend its funds, the American Egg Board (AEB) lobbied for a concerted attack on Hampton Creek, a food company that has created a low-cost plant-based egg replacement and the maker of Just Mayo, a mayonnaise alternative.
Notice that egg yolks are listed as the primary and vital ingredient of real mayonnaise.
a thick, creamy dressing consisting of egg yolks beaten with oil and vinegar and seasoned.
ORIGIN French, probably from the feminine of mahonnais ‘of or from Port Mahon,’, the capital of Minorca.
#4. To: TooConservative (#3)
Miracle Whip
I simply like the flavor better.
#5. To: TooConservative (#3)
(Edited)
#6. To: Operation 40 (#5)
Did you know that almost all candy made in the US has GMO ingredients?
#7. To: Operation 40 (#5)
Did you know that almost all candy made in the US has GMO ingredients?
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts
#8. To: Operation 40 (#5)
If you read the full Guardian article there is more than just a word on a label involved here. And if you look at the second picture in the OP you will find an example of a product that is labeled "BUTTER" but is "Not Butter".
And by the way, labels don't seem to be terriby important to the Feds, at least in some cases. Millions and millions of people are eating GMO food every day and haven't a clue about it because Monsanto and others have lobbied against labels and the government is nowhere to be found. This makes former Monsanto executive and present Commissioner of the FDA Michael Taylor and friends very happy.
#9. To: Deckard, Operation 40, tomder55 (#7)
And yet congress in cahoots with Monsanto has decided that it is not in our best interest to have GMO foods labeled as such.
Notice the name "Beyond Eggs" suggests it contains no egg products. Similarly, "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" announces it is a non-butter product. By comparison, Egg Beaters is a processed egg product as is Egg Beaters 100% Yolks. And Miracle Whip has, since its appearance in 1933, always called itself a salad dressing, never mayonnaise. 'Artificial egg' made from PLANTS backed by Bill Gates set to revolutionize cooking goes on sale at Whole Foods
A radical ‘artificial egg’ backed by Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel and Bill Gates goes on sale in US supermarkets for the first time today. Made from plants, it can replace eggs in everything from cakes to mayonnaise - without a chicken ever coming close to the production process. The team today started selling their ‘plant egg’, called Beyond Eggs, in Whole Foods in California - and say it could soon be available in supermarkets worldwide.
#10. To: Deckard, Operation 40, tomder55, Chuck_Wagon (#9)
(Edited)
#11. To: TooConservative (#10)
#12. To: tomder55 (#11)
#13. To: Operation 40 (#0)
#14. To: BobCeleste (#13)
What has the mayonnaise industry so concerned is that so many are, like me, making my own at home using organic ingredients at a cost of about 50 cents per two cups.
#15. To: TooConservative (#14)
#16. To: BobCeleste (#15)
I use eggs that are under two days old. Home made is so good, compared to the others.
#17. To: TooConservative (#16)
#18. To: BobCeleste (#17)
Yup, it's fast, it's good, and while not staying as 'unseperated' as long as the commercial stuff, is, I would bet, a whole lot better for you.
#19. To: Operation 40 (#1)
(Edited)
#20. To: Chuck_Wagon (#4)
I always use Miracle Whip instead of mayo. I simply like the flavor better.
#21. To: TooConservative (#9)
#22. To: A K A Stone, BobCeleste (#21)
As for the "I can't believe it's not butter". That product is good, tastes just like butter.
#23. To: A K A Stone, Chuck_Wagon (#20)
I hate Miracle Whip. I only use Hellman's Mayonaise.
#24. To: TooConservative (#23)
#25. To: TooConservative (#23)
#26. To: A K A Stone (#25)
http://www.mayoclinic.org/
#27. To: TooConservative (#26)
#28. To: A K A Stone, BobCeleste (#27)
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