August 27, 2015

Unilever wins against vegan mayo makers

Filed under: Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 10:05 am

chickpeas

Even though Dutch-British food giant Unilever had dropped its case against American vegan mayo maker Hampton Creek for its eggless mayonnaise Just Mayo, the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ruled that Just Mayo is not mayonnaise and is not ‘healthy for your heart’, either.

Mayonnaise has to contain eggs, so Just Mayo needs to change its name and probably its logo currently featuring an egg on it. As well, Just Mayo claims to be ‘healthy for your heart’, but apparently it’s mostly fat: a 14 g serving (one tablespoon) contains 90 calories, 75% of which is fat. In comparison a 13 g serving (one tablespoon) of Unilever’s Hellman’s Real Mayonnaise has 90 calories, 100% of which is fat, but doesn’t claim to be a good choice. The definition of tablespoon is still used in many countries and fluctuates, making calorie counting a pain.

Instead of Unilever getting bad publicity for bullying vegans and spending money to attack Hampton Creek, the FDA did their work for them.

(Link: nos.nl, Photo of Chick peas by abrunvoll, some rights reserved)

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December 19, 2014

Unilever pulls case against vegan mayo maker

Filed under: Food & Drink,Sustainability by Orangemaster @ 11:55 am

chickpeas

Dutch-British food giant Unilever has decided to stop its attack on American company Hampton Creek for its eggless mayonnaise Just Mayo this week. Unilever claimed that Just Mayo was not actually mayonnaise as the real deal has eggs in it and that their logo with an egg on it was misleading.

Hampton Creek retorted that its product is called ‘mayo’ and not mayonnaise, while fans of vegan food and healthier eating responded badly to the food giant’s attack on an alternative quality product. Just Mayo uses yellow chick peas as a replacement and also makes eggless cookies that have not upset any big company so far. Hampton Creek was financially back by BIll Gates to the tune of 30 million USD, a man who probably knows a thing or two about rubbish lawsuits.

Unilever’s world brand mayonnaise Hellman’s has just started being sold in the Netherlands this year and ironically, it doesn’t meet the requirements to be called mayonnaise in this country, as it has less oil than the definition formulated by the Dutch Food Authorities.

(Links: www.z24.nl, www.ft.com, Photo of Chick peas by abrunvoll, some rights reserved)

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November 25, 2009

Low fat mayonnaise with full fat taste

Filed under: Food & Drink,Health,Science by Orangemaster @ 12:10 pm
fries1

Thanks to a new production process, Koen van Dijke of the University of Wageningen has come up with a way of making mayonnaise using less oil, but with the same taste as full on fat mayonnaise. When you make mayonnaise, you need egg yolks or lemon as an emulsifier to stabilise the mixture. To do this right, you need to use a lot of oil, which makes mayonnaise fattening.

Van Dijke developed a microscale system that adds very little oil to a lot of water, producing a stable emulsion. Then this mix is added to more water, producing a new emulsion that is mostly water, but that retains the same taste.

(Links: rtl.nl, evmi.nl)

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November 29, 2008

Ceramic version of disposable French fries container

Filed under: Art,Design,Food & Drink,Gadgets,Weird by Branko Collin @ 3:18 pm

These ceramic containers for French fries are apparently on sale for 1 euro each at Bas / Dirk van den Broek in Rotterdam.

As the whole world has known since the movie Pulp Fiction, the Dutch eat their fries with mayonnaise. Hey, don’t knock what you haven’t tried! The only acceptable way to eat fries is from a cone-shaped paper bag, with the mayo on top. Since a long while many snack bars have switched however to serving their fries in plastic boxes with two compartments, a big one for the fries and a small one for the mayo. What kind of statement the Dirk van den Broek supermarket chain would be trying to make by having a sale of ceramic versions of these disposable containers Trendbeheer doesn’t tell.

Photo: Niels Post / Trendbeheer, some rights reserved.

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