Target Corp. Cuts Ties With Hampton Creek: Just Say No to Just Mayo
From Bloomberg:
Target Corp. will no longer sell products made by food startup Hampton Creek Inc.
after an internal review, the latest major blow to the beleaguered
maker of Just Mayo eggless mayonnaise and other plant-based foods.
The
retail giant decided to end the relationship about two months after
receiving what it described as “specific and serious food safety
allegations about Hampton Creek products.” Target pulled the San Francisco company’s products from shelves in June while it looked into the matter and shared the claims with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Hampton
Creek has said its products are safe and comply with FDA rules. The
FDA has said it won’t investigate unless it receives reports of
consumers getting sick and has “no safety concerns with Hampton Creek at
this time.”
“Although the FDA is not pursuing this further, we used the
opportunity to review our portfolio, as we regularly do, and decided to
reconsider our relationship with Hampton Creek,” Jenna Reck, a
spokeswoman for Target, wrote in an email Friday. “We are not planning
to bring Hampton Creek products back to Target and have openly
communicated our decision with the Hampton Creek team.”
Last week,
Hampton Creek released a statement saying the FDA had concluded its
products are safe and that the company hoped to resolve the issue with
Target soon. Hampton Creek said its public statement was to blame for
the retailer’s decision. “Target informed us that sharing with the
public the FDA’s conclusion that our products are safe violated Target’s
vendor communication guidelines,” Andrew Noyes, a spokesman for Hampton
Creek, wrote in an email.
Target said the statement was one of
several factors. “There were multiple reasons we terminated our
relationship with Hampton Creek and all of the reasons were clearly
communicated to Hampton Creek,” Reck said by phone. She declined to
elaborate, saying Target doesn’t discuss details of its business
relationships....MORE
