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Declaration of Ryu Yokoi Hellman's - Unilever V Hampton Creek Just Mayo
Declaration of Ryu Yokoi Hellman's - Unilever V Hampton Creek Just Mayo
injunction against Hampton Creek, Inc. (Hampton Creek,) to prohibit it from falsely
advertising and distributing its plant-based, vegan alternative to real mayonnaise under
the name Just Mayo. This declaration is based on my personal knowledge, my review of
business records over which I have control or to which I have regular access in my
employment, and my review of publicly available documents. If called as a witness, I
could and would testify competently as to all of the facts contained herein.
THE HELLMANS AND BEST FOODS
BRANDS OF REAL MAYONNAISE.
3.
family recipe for mayonnaise in salads in his delicatessen on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan. His mayonnaise proved so popular that he began selling it packaged in
wooden boats, that otherwise were used to weigh butter. To differentiate varieties, he
put a blue ribbon on one of the wooden boats. The blue ribbon variety became
enormously popular and Hellmann soon devoted his entire business to jarring and selling
Hellmanns mayonnaise.
4.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued regulations that
govern use of the term mayonnaise. Among other requirements, the FDAs standard
of identity specifies the key ingredients that a product must contain to qualify as
mayonnaise: egg yolks, vegetable oil and an acidifying ingredient (vinegar, lemon
juice or lime juice). This standard of identity for mayonnaise was developed in
response to prior efforts to pass off as mayonnaise products that were diluted or did not
contain the ingredients necessary to qualify as real mayonnaise.
6.
For nearly 80 years, Hellmanns and Best Foods have supported the
can be used, not only as a spread on sandwiches, but in cooking as well. Examples of
advertisements showing how mayonnaise can be used in cooking are attached as Exhibit
B and Exhibit C.
8.
Consumers expect real mayonnaise to contain egg, oil and vinegar (or
2004) defines mayonnaise as a dressing made of egg yolks, vegetable oils, and vinegar
or lemon juice. (emphasis added), and dictionary.com defines mayonnaise as a thick
dressing of egg yolks, vinegar or lemon juice, oil, and seasonings, used for salads,
sandwiches, vegetable dishes, etc. Available at http://dictionary.reference.com
(emphasis added).
FALSE LABELING AND ADVERTISING OF JUST MAYO
9.
Although Just Mayo includes a disclaimer on the label that it is egg free,
that disclaimer is small and, in any event, I think it is confusing because it contradicts the
name of the product, which claims to be a mayo, and it is inconsistent with the large
image of the egg.
12.
spreads that include the name Just Mayo with a term describing
added flavors, including Just Mayo Chipotle, Just Mayo Garlic,
and Just Mayo Sriracha. The labeling for these flavored Just
Mayo sandwich spreads (an example of which is shown at right;
all three labels are shown in Exhibit F) is nearly identical to the
labeling for the unflavored Just Mayo sandwich spread, except
the name of the flavor appears below the words Just Mayo.
Another difference is that the egg free disclaimer is included only on the back label,
again in very small letters. As with unflavored Just Mayo, none of the flavored Just
Mayo spreads contain any egg ingredients, despite the prominent image of the egg on the
label.
13.
Compounding the problem, and demonstrating what its intent has been
from the start, Hampton Creek has explicitly referred to Just Mayo as mayo and
mayonnaise in advertisements:
On its Facebook page (see Exhibit I), Hampton Creek states that it is the
#1 selling mayo at Whole Foods Market! (emphasis added).
14.
that way by consumers. The Merriam Webster Online dictionary defines mayo simply
as mayonnaise, as does the American Heritage College Dictionary (3d ed. 1993), and
Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed. 2004). In common usage, mayo
often is used as a synonym for mayonnaise. In the New York Times, for example, food
writer Melissa Clark repeatedly uses mayo and mayonnaise interchangeably. See
Exhibit J (Melissa Clark, Mayonnaise: Oil, Egg and a Drop of Magic, New York
Times (May 22, 2012)). Exhibit K contains additional articles and popular references
equating mayo and mayonnaise.
15.
does not perform like real mayonnaise. Real mayonnaise is used by home and
professional chefs alike as an essential ingredient in many recipes, including as an
ingredient that adds flavor to and binds together the ingredients in heated recipes.
Indeed, on the Hellmanns website (at http://www.hellmanns.com/recipes), Unilever
promotes such signature recipes as Parmesan Crusted Chicken and Turkey Casserole.
See Exhibit L. Because Just Mayo lacks the ingredients of a real mayonnaise, it can
separate into constituent parts when it is heated, and thus fails to bind the ingredients, in
some of the recipes that call for using mayonnaise. For example, mayonnaise is an
ingredient in one of the signature recipes for Hellmanns mayonnaise parmesan
crusted chicken. The mayonnaise keeps the chicken moist and coats the chicken so that
cheese can melt on top and the bread crumbs can stick to it. I have seen test kitchen
experiments with Just Mayo used instead of mayonnaise, and it broke down with the oil
flowing off of the chicken; so the product did not act as a coating for the chicken.
Similarly, mayonnaise is often used as an ingredient in warm dips. In a similar test
kitchen experiment with Just Mayo used instead of mayonnaise, the dip separated and
resulted in a watery, rather than creamy, consistency.
16.
Mayo deceives consumers and damages the entire product category, which, as discussed
above, has strived to protect a consistent definition of mayonnaise that fits with
consumer expectations.
17.
At Unilever, we have seen first hand that Just Mayo is causing consumer
deception. In a recent focus group conducted by Unilever, consumers who were shown a
jar of Just Mayo mistakenly believed that it was real, egg-containing mayonnaise until
they carefully scrutinized the label and discovered that it does not contain eggs. After
making that discovery, one of the consumers stated: Its not Just Mayo, its a lie.
18.
consumers do not realize that Just Mayo is not mayonnaise like the other mayonnaise
products on the shelf. In a video interview that was posted to YouTube on November 4,
2014, Hampton Creeks CEO, Josh Tetrick, stated that most consumers do not know
that, when they buy Just Mayo, they are getting a product that is different than real
mayonnaise. The interview is included on the attached DVD as Exhibit M. The passage
at issue is about four and a half minutes into the video; the actual exchange is as follows:
Question: So, um, do I, the consumer, know what Im buying when I buy [Just
Mayo], that its different than the other mayonnaise on the shelf?
Answer: Most dont. So, were also in Whole Foods. So were the number one
selling mayo in Whole Foods.. But to the mom, to the 37-year old single
mom, whose, you know, shopping in her Bentonville Walmart store, and
shes rolling down aisle 7, she might not know. She just buys it because
its affordable and her friends told her that it tasted pretty good. And, as a
side note, shes looking for things that are better for her kids.
(emphasis added)
19.
Hampton Creeks intention to pass off Just Mayo as real mayonnaise, rather than a vegan
mayonnaise substitute, when he described his companys business strategy. He explained
that Hampton Creek wants to avoid having Just Mayo be seen as a mayonnaise
substitute: Focusing on substitute and focusing on alternatives is a recipe for loserdom
for us. Its a recipe for being a niche company. Its a recipe for lots of folks who are in
the natural world to sort of give us a big round of applause and a recipe for someone in
Birmingham Alabama to ignore us completely. And thats something we dont want. So,
were trying to focus more on not the alternative, but the only thing. The passage at
issue starts at about the ten minute mark into this video.
20.
Business News, Mr. Tetrick was asked directly why Hampton Creek avoids truthfully
calling its product vegan. Mr. Tetrick explained that calling the product vegan
would not be too effective because Hampton Creek is all about making the thing
accessible. The interview is included on the attached DVD as Exhibit N; the passages at
issue start at about 2 minutes into the video.
21.
Consumers deceived into believing Just Mayo is real mayonnaise and who
are subsequently disappointed by its taste or failure to perform adequately could falsely
believe those sub-standard characteristics are common to mayonnaise generally,
including Unilevers Best Foods and Hellmanns brands. That is precisely the type of
unquantifiable harm to Unilevers brand that both the federal standards of identity, as
10
In March 2014, shortly after it first learned about Just Mayo, Unilever
contacted Hampton Creek to demand that Hampton Creek correct its false and misleading
labeling and advertising for Just Mayo. The primary concern that Unilever expressed
was Hampton Creeks deceptive use of the name Just Mayo.
24.
Since then, the parties have exchanged a number of letters the most
recent of which were dated October 31, 2014 from Unilever and November 4, 2014 from
Hampton Creek. Through these letters and the parties discussions, Unilever has
continued to explain its concerns regarding the name Just Mayo (and, in its October 31
letter, it expressly warned Hampton Creek that Unilever would seek a preliminary
injunction if Hampton Creek persisted in its use of the deceptive Just Mayo name).
Despite Unilevers efforts to convince Hampton Creek to correct its false and misleading
labeling and advertising, and to discontinue use of the literally false name Just Mayo,
Hampton Creek refused to do so.
25.
ways that make a swift resolution of this dispute more urgent. When Just Mayo initially
was introduced in September 2013, it was sold in specialty markets, like Whole Foods,
that do not carry any of Unilevers brands. It also had a limited test in Costco wholesale
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clubs, but we had limited access to information about the test sales because we do not
have access to tracking data on Costco sales. Moreover, because the Just Mayo product
sold at Whole Foods lacked a preservative and therefore was not shelf stable, it was
stocked in those stores in the refrigerated foods section, often next to other imitation
mayonnaise products such as Vegenaise, rather than in the aisle with real mayonnaise.
26.
shelf-stable version that competes, at least in some of those stores, with Best Foods and
Hellmanns for shelf space. Several months later, Unilever learned that Just Mayo
would be carried by Walmart nationally in a shelf-stable version, directly competing with
Best Foods and Hellmanns mayonnaise for shelf space.
27.
doubt that consumers are exposed to this falsehood at the point of purchase. Although
advertising, including false advertising, impacts consumer decision-making, the effect of
the advertising itself is enormously difficult to quantify because so many other factors
impact consumer purchases.
28.
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