Hampton Creek Foods, which was founded in 2011, aims to use various plants instead of animal products as substitutes in common foods-such as replacing eggs in pre-packaged cookie dough or mayonnaise.
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent a letter earlier this month warning the San Francisco-based food company that it was violating the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act by mislabeling products Just Mayo and Just Mayo Sriracha.
The “egg” of Hampton Creek’s Just Mayo-and Just Mayo Sriracha, which was also cited in the warning letter-is actually a byproduct of Canadian yellow pea and has fast become a popular product on grocery store shelves across the country, TIME reported past year.
But in November 2014, Unilever-which owns Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise-filed a lawsuit against Hampton Creek, arguing the lack of eggs in its Just Mayo disqualifies the product from being classified as a mayonnaise.
As a name, Just Mayo just won’t do.
Apart from purporting “to be the standardized food mayonnaise due to the misleading name and imagery used on the label”, Hampton Creek claims Just Mayo products are cholesterol-free, and its label implies that the product is heart-healthy.
The ingredient label, left, was from Hampton Creek’s website on August 4, 2015.
Unilever dropped the suit in December to allow the startup to work with industry groups and regulators to fix the label. Hampton Creek has yet to do so, and did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment.
Hampton Creek, which is backed by high-profile investors including Bill Gates, Li Ka-Shing, and Vinod Khosla, was scrutinized earlier this month for its management practices after anonymous ex-employees aired their complaints with Business Insider. The FDA said there is too much fat in the products to qualify for these health claims. CEO Josh Tetrick later confirmed that the company had the wrong label, but said it had been fixed in March.
The company’s products, including “Just Mayo”, are commonly sold at Whole Foods, Safeway, and other major supermarkets.
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The company has 15 days to respond to the letter.
