Egg-free mayo launched in Hong Kong

Love the thick, creamy taste of mayo, but also want to say no to animal fat and cholesterol? Well, egg-free mayonnaise is spreading. After their first launch in Northern California last year, the tech food startup Hampton Creek Foods is putting it alternative food "Just Mayo" on the Hong Kong market. But its target is not only vegans.

Just Mayo has finally arrived on Hong Kong’s grocery shelves. The plant-based product promises a richer, healthier taste of mayonnaise on your bread or potato salad - without the cholesterol.

Cheaper by at least fifteen percent than the real thing, it may not be the world’s first egg-free mayo, but it is the first not targeted solely at vegans.

The tech food startup that produces it - Hampton Creek Foods - has managed to attract investments from U.S. billionaire Bill Gates -and Asia’s richest man Li Ka-Shing. Mr Li invested 23 million U-S dollars into the company whose egg-free products he described as a definite "hit".

Josh Tetrick is founder and CEO of Hampton Creek Foods.

"We don’t manipulate anything...everything we do is non-GMO, and verified by the non-GMO projects. We’ve been in touch with farmers all across the Chinese mainland, Indonesia. Of Asia we think our new cash props to be grown, to try to make all of that," he said.

Concerns over the safety of poultry grew after Hong Kong slaughtered 20-thousand live chickens in late January on fears of bird flu outbreak. A fatal strain of H7N9 bird flu was detected from imported chickens from the Mainland.

More than one-point-eight trillion eggs are produced in the world annually says Tetrick, and almost 40 percent of them in the Mainland. Farm fresh eggs are also the cheapest form of animal protein available for consumption, and it has so many uses: binding, leavening, baking, or when fried, poached or scrambled, simply enjoyed for breakfast.

We put the product to the test by asking Professor Hani El-Nezami of Hong Kong University’s School of Biological Sciences to try it with his graduate students. The verdict: (Nats of group)