Bill Lee: “a few years ago, a company in California called Hampton Creek, now known as JUST, Inc., started selling vegan-- that is…”

“a few years ago, a company in California called Hampton Creek, now known as JUST, Inc., started selling vegan-- that is to say, eggless--mayonnaise. Just Mayo was one of hundreds of increasingly popular alternative foods developed in recent decades, marketed to vegetarians, vegans, and people with food allergies or other health concerns. Understandably, as soon as Just Mayo started to win confidence, it started to attract the attention of top executives in the egg industry. Unfortunately, their intent was not to improve quality or reduce prices. It was, instead, to enlist the government in a pattern that would chill competition. Under a 1938 Federal law, the Food and Drug Administration has the power to set so-called ``standards of identity.'' Those are rules defining what does and does not qualify as a particular food product. Under these regulations, anything calling its ``mayonnaise'' has to have eggs in it. Just Mayo was being accused of being illegally labeled. It is not just mayonnaise. Just the other week, the FDA announced a proposed rule that would ban the use of the term ``milk'' for nondairy products. The FDA says milk is ``lacteal secretion . . . obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows,'' and nothing else. The proposed rule change would wipe out almond milk, soy milk, and coconut milk off of our grocery store shelves. Whatever their original value, these labeling requirements are outdated and they are unnecessary.…”