Chris Sosa, Alternet.org
September 2017
We still don’t know who was behind the hoax. But what we do know is that this hoax started a domino effect that led to a smaller health-food-oriented company being tossed from the shelves of a major retailer in favor of larger industry players.
Hampton Creek, a relative newcomer to the grocery aisle, debuted in 2011
as a sort of tech-minded answer to problems in the global food system that
the company believed it could help solve through plant-based products. The
brand’s signature product is Just Mayo, a popular mayonnaise product made
without eggs.
Hampton Creek met with corporate pushback from entities that saw the
company’s products as a threat. As Hampton Creek grew its product line to
include everything from dressings to cookie dough, forging relationships
with major distributors along the way, the organization faced scrutiny that
smaller plant-oriented food companies have not.
Uniliever, which owns Hellman’s, initially sued Hampton Creek for false
advertising due to Just Mayo’s lack of eggs. The suit was eventually
dropped, and Just Mayo remained on the shelves. Hellman’s got in on the
action by launching its own vegan mayo to compete.
Hampton Creek's insular workings have also drawn controversy, especially as
numerous former employees describe slippery ethical moves and its entire
board of directors recently left, with many reportedly citing “discord” with
CEO Josh Tetrick as the reason.
Amid the internal politics and outside legal pressures, Hampton Creek
products continued to fly off the shelves, and the products’ safety has
never been in question. Hampton Creek products are routinely top-ranked by
consumers for quality. (Full disclosure: There’s at least one Hampton Creek
mayo product in my refrigerator right now.)
Then came the hoax. Numerous major grocery retailers received correspondence
suggesting that Hampton Creek products were mislabeled and contaminated.
They weren’t. Even the FDA became involved and completely cleared Hampton
Creek.
Target was the only retailer to react to the well-coordinated hoax by
removing the products from its shelves based on the dubious allegations
without verifying the authenticity of the claims.
Though Hampton Creek was fully vindicated, Target refused to restock its
products, instead tellling Hampton Creek that it was in violation of its
Vendor Communication Guidelines. (AlterNet confirmed this from multiple
sources, and Target did not dispute it.)
The charge is bizarre because Hampton Creek’s public referencing of Target
was completely unavoidable when defending itself from a hoax that only
Target inadvertently perpetuated.
The idea that Target would first punish a company based on a hoax then
re-punish the same company for defending itself from the hoax doesn’t add
up. After confirming the existence of corporate communication citing the
alleged contract violation, AlterNet contacted Target’s public relations
team to sort the matter out, especially since we were told there was at
least one other cited reason for the termination that was procedural and
minor.
A representative responded, “As a matter of policy, Target doesn't comment
on discussions with our vendors, so I don’t have any additional details to
share.” AlterNet also received the same unenlightening press statement given
to other outlets.
We still don’t know who was behind the hoax. But what we do know is that
this hoax started a domino effect that led to a smaller health-food-oriented
company being tossed from the shelves of a major retailer in favor of larger
industry players.
The real losers amid such corporate intrigue are consumers, who already find
themselves short on healthy options and denied meaningful choices in the
grocery aisle.
With the removal of Hampton Creek, consumers who use Target as a primary grocer have one fewer plant-based option amid an already mimimal set of offerings.
Chris Sosa is an associate editor at AlterNet. His work has appeared in Mic, Salon, Care2, Huffington Post and other publications. Previously, he was a campaign specialist and media spokesperson for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisSosa.
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