Best vegan mayo: 6 egg-free jars compared, 2 to skip

Our pick is Follow Your Heart’s Vegenaise, from a company that says all of its products are vegan, with a soy-free jar for anyone avoiding soy. Hellmann’s Plant Based, Sir Kensington’s Classic Vegan Mayo and Chosen Foods Vegan Mayo also pass. Two lookalikes fail: Hellmann’s olive oil dressing and Chosen Foods’ Classic jar both contain egg.

Hellmann’s puts the word dressing on its vegan jar and on jars made with egg. Plant Based Mayo Spread & Dressing is Certified Vegan. Mayonnaise Dressing with Olive Oil lists whole eggs and egg yolks, and the allergen line on Avocado Oil Mayonnaise Dressing declares egg. The one word on these labels with a legal meaning is mayonnaise. The FDA standard defines mayonnaise as an emulsion of vegetable oil, an acidifying ingredient and at least one egg yolk-containing ingredient, at no less than 65% oil by weight, and it reserves the name “Mayonnaise” for that food. So a jar sold as plain mayonnaise has egg in it by definition. The other words on these jars promise nothing either way. The easier check is the allergen line: egg is one of the nine major food allergens, and a US label has to name it in the ingredient list or in a Contains statement. Not every animal ingredient gets that treatment, which is the subject of our list of foods that aren’t vegan, but for mayo, egg is the one that matters and the one the law makes visible.

Six vegan mayos and two lookalikes, compared

We read each maker’s own product page in October 2026. None of the six vegan jars shows a price on its maker’s page, so this table compares what goes into the jar instead.

Product	Vegan, per the maker	In place of egg	Soy	Preservatives on the list
Follow Your Heart Vegenaise Original	Yes, all products vegan	Soy protein	Yes	None listed
Follow Your Heart Vegenaise Soy-Free	Yes, all products vegan	Pea protein	None listed	None listed
Hellmann’s Plant Based Mayo Spread & Dressing	Certified Vegan	Modified potato and corn starch	None listed	Sorbic acid, calcium disodium EDTA
Sir Kensington’s Classic Vegan Mayo	Egg-free, “vegan-approved”	Aquafaba (water, chickpeas)	Soy-free, per the maker	None labeled as one
Chosen Foods Vegan Avocado Oil Mayo	“Totally vegan”	Chickpea protein blend	Free of soy, per the maker	Rosemary extract “for freshness”
Just Mayo	Plant-based and egg-free	Not published on the page	Soy-free, per the maker	No artificial preservatives, per the maker
Hellmann’s Mayonnaise Dressing with Olive Oil	No: whole eggs, egg yolks	Contains egg	Soybean oil	Sorbic acid, calcium disodium EDTA
Chosen Foods Classic Avocado Oil Mayo	No: egg yolks, whole eggs	Contains egg	None listed	Organic rosemary extract

Follow Your Heart Vegenaise Original

Our pick. The list is expeller-pressed canola and safflower oils, filtered water, brown rice syrup, apple cider vinegar, soy protein, sea salt, mustard flour and lemon juice concentrate, and nothing on it needs a second look. Follow Your Heart answers the vegan question for its whole range in one line of its FAQ: all of its products are vegan.

A tablespoon is 80 calories and 9 g of fat, with 70 mg of sodium. Brown rice syrup is third on the list, and the panel still shows 0 g of added sugars per tablespoon. The panel counts 64 servings of 14 g, which is about 2 pounds of mayo (our arithmetic), so this is the big jar.

Two things count against it. The soy protein is the first: if soy is the reason you read labels, this jar is out, and the Soy-Free one below is in. The second is shared equipment. Follow Your Heart says some of its products are made on shared lines with allergens, and the FAQ doesn’t say which, so anyone with a severe allergy should ask before buying.

Follow Your Heart Vegenaise Soy-Free

It swaps the canola and safflower for expeller-pressed high-oleic safflower oil and the soy protein for pea protein; the rest of the list matches the Original. Per tablespoon it is 80 calories, 9 g of fat and 75 mg of sodium.

The panel gives servings per container as “Varies”, which is a polite way of saying check the size on the shelf. Follow Your Heart makes an Avocado Oil Vegenaise on the same pea protein base, with avocado oil first and high-oleic safflower second, and it is the jar to put next to Chosen Foods’ below. Its panel shows the same 80 calories and 9 g of fat per tablespoon, with 1 g of saturated fat against 0.5 g in the Original, and 75 mg of sodium. The shared-line caveat from the Original applies here too, and otherwise this is the jar for a soy-free house.

Hellmann’s Plant Based Mayo Spread & Dressing

Hellmann’s builds its vegan jar on starch rather than protein. Canola oil, water, modified food starch from potato and corn and distilled vinegar make up most of it, then under 2% of sugar, salt, lemon juice concentrate, sorbic acid and calcium disodium EDTA “used to protect quality”, natural flavor and paprika extract for color. The natural flavor is the kind of ingredient this site normally asks about; the Certified Vegan claim on the page is what settles it here.

Hellmann’s says the jar is free from eggs and gluten and has the same taste as its Real mayonnaise. The taste half is the maker’s word, and it is the reason most people buy this jar. It is also the only vegan jar here with preservatives on the list. If you want a short ingredient list, or you avoid EDTA, don’t buy this one; Vegenaise gets you there in eight ingredients.

Sir Kensington’s Classic Vegan Mayo

Sir Kensington’s replaces the egg with aquafaba, made from water and chickpeas. The full list is sunflower oil, aquafaba, lemon juice, salt, distilled vinegar, acacia gum, xanthan gum, rosemary extract, black pepper, citric acid, mustard extract and lemon oil. Sir Kensington’s sells it as soy-free and keto-certified, in a 12 oz jar of 24 servings.

Per tablespoon it is 90 calories, 10 g of fat and 100 mg of sodium, the most sodium of the panels we could read. Its vegan claim is “vegan-approved”, and the page names no certifier behind it. The brand’s vegan page still describes a line-up made with 100% avocado oil and 100% sunflower oil, but lists only the Classic.

One detail from the footers: Sir Kensington’s site and Hellmann’s site both say they are for products of Unilever United States. So the same company sells the starch-and-EDTA vegan jar and the aquafaba one, and you can pick by list without changing who you buy from. Skip this jar if salt is the number you watch.

Chosen Foods Vegan Avocado Oil Mayo

If avocado oil is what you’re after, this is the jar. The list is avocado oil, filtered water, distilled white vinegar, sugar, a chickpea protein blend of chickpea protein and tamarind seed gum, salt, mustard, xanthan gum, rosemary extract “for freshness” and mustard oil. Chosen Foods calls it totally vegan and says it is Non-GMO certified, kosher, and free of soy, canola and other oils.

The catch is the clock. Chosen Foods gives an unopened jar a shelf life of up to 12 months and says to keep an opened one in the fridge and finish it within two months. Follow Your Heart says Vegenaise is good until its printed date whether opened or not. If a jar of mayo lasts you a season, buy Vegenaise. The Chosen page also has no buy button of its own; it sends you to Amazon.

Just Mayo

Eat Just lists Just Mayo among its condiments as a plant-based mayo, and describes the condiment range as plant-based and egg-free, free of soy and dairy, with no artificial flavors or preservatives. Those claims are made for the condiments as a group, and the page publishes no ingredient list for the mayo. For buying, the page points to a store locator and an online shop rather than a price. It is the one jar here we can’t fully read, so buy it on the strength of the jar’s own label.

Hellmann’s Mayonnaise Dressing with Olive Oil

Skip it. Water comes first, then olive, canola and soybean oils, whole eggs, modified corn starch, sugar, vinegar and egg yolks, with egg declared in its allergen statement. Hellmann’s Avocado Oil Mayonnaise Dressing declares egg as well. Both carry the word dressing, like the plant-based jar, and both carry egg. If you reach for a Hellmann’s jar because of the oil in its name, you have reached for egg.

Chosen Foods Classic Avocado Oil Mayo

This one shares a brand and an oil with the vegan jar above, and it is made with egg. Avocado oil, filtered water, egg yolks and organic whole eggs lead its list, followed by vinegar, mustard, salt and rosemary extract, with “Contains: Egg” underneath. Chosen Foods lists it at $13.49 for 12 fl oz, $24.99 for 24 and $29.99 for 32, none of them available to buy on its store when we read it. On the shelf, the word Vegan in the product name is the thing to look for.

What replaces the egg

The federal standard requires an egg yolk-containing ingredient in anything sold as mayonnaise. Each vegan jar lists something else in its place, and it is right there on the label. Follow Your Heart uses soy protein in the Original and in its Grapeseed Oil Vegenaise, and pea protein in the Soy-Free and Avocado Oil jars. Sir Kensington’s uses aquafaba with acacia and xanthan gums. Chosen Foods uses chickpea protein with tamarind seed gum and xanthan gum. Hellmann’s uses modified potato and corn starch.

The swap matters most for allergies. Soy is a major allergen and must be named on the label, so the soy protein in Vegenaise Original shows up where a soy-avoiding reader will look. The other jars name no soy.

The oil is the other choice you are making. Vegenaise Original is canola and safflower, the Soy-Free jar is high-oleic safflower, Hellmann’s is canola, Sir Kensington’s is sunflower, and Chosen Foods is avocado. Follow Your Heart lists six Vegenaise jars on its site, Original, Avocado Oil, Soy-Free, Grapeseed Oil, Organic and Chipotle, so if one brand’s list suits you, the oil is a second decision within it.

How long an opened jar keeps

The makers disagree, and only two of them say. Follow Your Heart says Vegenaise is good until the “Best if Used by” date whether the jar is open or not, wants it at 36 to 41°F, on the fridge door, and never frozen; if it is stored too cold, the emulsion can break and separate. Chosen Foods gives an opened jar two months in the fridge, and warns that freezing temperatures in transit can separate its mayo. Hellmann’s and Sir Kensington’s product pages say nothing about an opened jar.

Which jar to buy

Buy Vegenaise Original if soy is fine in your house, and the Soy-Free jar if it isn’t. Buy Hellmann’s Plant Based if you want the jar that is sold as tasting like Hellmann’s and don’t mind the preservatives. Buy Sir Kensington’s for an aquafaba list and a smaller jar, and Chosen Foods for avocado oil, provided you finish it inside two months. Before any of them goes in the cart, find the word vegan or plant based in the name and check the allergen line for egg. For what to do once the jar is open, our guide to how long vegan mayo keeps picks up from here.