(or if you'd prefer The Veganaise ™ Story)

there was an "eggless" mayonnaise with real mayonnaise taste. It was called Lecinaise, after the ingredient lecithin, said to replace the eggs and to provide other nutritional benefits.

a small vegetarian food bar serving many customers who also wished to avoid eggs. In those days, (the early '70s) our business was growing like crazy. Our food was a hit, and one of the reasons was that magical sandwich spread.

Lecinaise turned out to be considerably less than advertised. It came to light that the secret process used in making Lecinaise amounted to soaking the labels off bottles of regular commercial mayonnaise, and then relabeling them. Sadly, not only was the product not eggless, it also contained refined sugar and preservatives.

We were devastated and desperate. The only other eggless product available tasted - well, not like mayonnaise. It looked like if we wanted eggless mayonnaise, we were going to have to make our own. So, we studied about oils and emulsions. We asked the experts and other manufacturers. Everyone we spoke with said it was impossible. If we wanted true mayonnaise taste, we were going to have to break some eggs.

an idea came. The very next day, acting on that insight, an experiment was tried, and Vegenaise ® was born. That initial success led to hundreds of trials in the process of perfecting the recipe. Our refrigerators overflowed with samples of mayonnaise as we tested again and again in search of the desired qualities. Once the ideal formula was achieved, we conducted blindfold tests of the product against the best selling supermarket brand.

We went looking for a manufacturer to make our product. We took our formula around to companies that were already bottling mayonnaise, but none was able to make the adjustments required to consistently reproduce our unique process.

So, we continued to produce just enough for our own restaurant, but had no means to satisfy the growing demand. Finally, we decided that the only way to get the job done, was to set up our own production facility where we could control the quality. In 1988, Earth Island was created for that purpose, and has, ever since, been making Vegenaise ®, as well as other private label natural foods products for both institutional and retail users.

Follow Your Heart ® often receives calls and letters from people who have tasted Vegenaise ®, and are willing to pay whatever it costs to have some shipped to them wherever they are.

Now, after over thirty years of testing on satisfied Follow Your Heart ® customers, we have made Original Vegenaise ®, along with its companion products, Grapeseed Oil Vegenaise ®, Expeller Pressed Vegenaise ®, and Organic Vegenaise ®, available through natural foods, specialty, and fine grocery stores everywhere.

Aside from its authentic taste and totally vegan ingredients, there's one more important difference to Vegenaise ® that we'd like you to know about. We keep Vegenaise ® in the refrigerator -- not just at home, but in the store as well. That way we're able to insure its freshness without having to compromise on any of the ingredients.

Today, there are several eggless mayonnaise products to choose from. One delivers real mayonnaise taste without any eggs, dairy products, or animal derived ingredients. That product is Vegenaise ®, THE FRESH ONE. We hope you'll enjoy it, and live happily ever after.