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Comment by hristov | Hacker News Reader

Hampton Creek are flat out dishonest. They have a product that is not mayonnaise, but they call it mayo. Furthermore, their product does not include any eggs but they had a huge image of an egg dominate their entire label. The entire product was based on a lie and I am not surprised they tried to mislead their investors and distributors as well.

I am all for removing animal products from the diet but that does not excuse lying to the consumer. If you think you have a great egg-less mayo like sauce, you should be proud of the fact that is egg-less and make sure the consumer knows it. Not hide it.

And no it does not taste anything like mayo. It has a weird spicy taste. Mayonnaise is not supposed to be spicy. Some people may like it, but the people that are expecting the taste of mayonnaise will be quite disappointed. I am willing to bet that a lot of food has been thrown in the trash because of this little marketing trick.

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What about bacon fat mayo, which is made with bacon fat instead of the traditional olive oil?

Or how about Hellman's which almost certainly doesn't use olive oil, instead using some cheap vegetable imitation, should that be allowed to be called Mayo?

In Japan they use apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar, should that also be labelled as "rice-vinegar based mayo-like sauce"?

Mayonnaise is almost never made with 100% olive oil. It will dominate the flavor (sharp/grassy/bitter). A dash is fine, but a neutrally flavored vegetable oil like canola, rapeseed or sunflower oil is typically used.

From Wikipedia:

> According to Trutter et al.: "It is highly probable that wherever olive oil existed, a simple preparation of oil and egg came about — particularly in the Mediterranean region, where aioli (oil and garlic) is made."

So, no. What you are talking about is some imitation Mayonnaise-like sauce which should be law not be allowed to be called "Mayo". Because that's what the legal system is for: protecting the traditional definitions of foods from people like you who think some sort of cheap Canadian imitation flower seed oil should be allowed to be used in a traditional recipe like Mayonnaise.

And this is why the EU PDO is useful. If you have a product with such a designation, you know some of it's qualities.

If i pick up feta, I know that it's made from sheep or goat milk, but if I buy Greek salad cheese or Feta-style, I have no such guarantees.

Admittedly, some of the designations are a bit off, such as not being able to make Stilton cheese in the village of Stilton.

> Or how about Hellman's which almost certainly doesn't use olive oil, instead using some cheap vegetable imitation

Use of olive oil isn't the norm for commercial mayonnaise; commercial mayonnaise that uses olive oil is prominently distinguished. Vegetable oil is the norm.

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