Have you ever bought a household staple while grocery shopping, only to go home and find that it’s changed, but can’t quite put your finger on how?
Maybe the recipe was a little different, and they didn’t taste how they did before. Or perhaps the packaging was slightly off, in a way that felt uncanny? Well, TikTok user Gabriel Miller (@nooneimprtant) documented one such discovery while in the supermarket.
A few days ago, Miller posted a viral video showing a disturbing change in mayonnaise bottles. As of publication, the video has 5.7 million views.
In the video, Miller is inside a supermarket, standing in front of the mayonnaise shelf. He begins flipping over jars of Best Foods mayonnaise, revealing a gray circle on the bottom of each one.
After flipping over five bottles and recording their five respective gray circles, Miller flips over another mayonnaise bottle. The bottom is entirely white.
To end the video, Miller places the white bottle on its side, with the bottom facing the camera. Then, he places a gray circle jar right next to it, in the same position, inviting comparison.
“What the f*ck?” Miller whispers. Then, the video ends.
Confusion in the comments
Miller’s video confused many users.
“I love the part where he told us what it is,” one of the top commenters said.
“So we can’t read minds,” another user pointed out. “How dose this teach us what the difference means?”
For those who did understand it, the video spurred users into posting their theories about the jar changes.
“Paying for air, that’s what it means,” a user stated. “Big companies are charging more for less all the time.” While a few commenters agreed with this assertion, some posited different ideas.
“Darker plastic is usually recycled content,” someone else noted. A different user replied to them in agreement.
“It’s not the Mayo but the color of the plastic,” they explained. “I thought the same till i got to the bottom of a jar.”
Looking to Reddit
Nine months ago, user u/Miserable_Move_5455 started a thread on the subreddit r/Condiments to discuss the gray mayo circles.
“Is it normal for mayo to be this color at the bottom of the jar?” the original poster asked. For context, they attached a picture similar to the first five mayonnaise jars Miller showed in his video.
The jar in question also appeared to be from Best Foods—it was taken in front of a shelf filled with Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Best Foods’ nearly-identical sister brand.
Similar to Miller’s TikTok comment section, the biggest argument in the Reddit thread also concerns what caused the jars’ discoloration. Many users cite recycling, but user u/ProudWebAddict disagrees.
“[Best Foods] are talking about the entire jar possibly being darker or random spots because of poor mixing,” they stated. “For all these jars to have the same issue in the same place but nowhere else is just not possible to be because of recycled plastic.”
Later in the post, they claimed that on June 26, 2023, Unilever Consumer Care sent them a response email stating that the discoloration was due to their use of recycled materials, but u/ProudWebAddict didn’t believe it.
User u/ArtBee, responded with a counterpoint to u/ProudWebAddict.
“It’s because the plastic is thicker in that area,” they said. “Mayo is a mostly opaque white, so as the plastic gets thicker, against a white opaque material, you can see more of the grey colour of the recycled plastic because it’s not totally clear like new plastic is. That’s just physics.” u/ArtBee added that everyone should consider buying foods in glass containers, though, as plastic “leaches into food one way or another.”
@nooneimprtant ♬ original sound – Gabriel Miller
So what causes the gray circle?
According to an article by Deanne Toto for Recycling Today, Best Foods switched to entirely recycled materials in 2019. By “recycled materials,” they specifically meant “recycled polyethylene terephthalate,” or rPETs, which are a certain type of plastic for packaging.
In the article, Toto speaks with Ben Crook, a senior brand director at Unilever in New Jersey. Late in the piece, Toto asks Crook how the recycling change went over with consumers.
“‘The more times PET is recycled, the darker in tint the material becomes,’” Brook tells Toto. “‘This is caused by different color bottles in the recycling stream as well as the recovery process and the application of heat to repelletize the resin.’”
“Hellmann’s rPET bottles and jars have a gray tint to them, which Crook says is different from what the brand’s consumers are accustomed to,” Toto elaborates a few paragraphs later.
Should you be buying Best Foods Mayo?
While all signs point to recycling in terms of the discoloration problem, u/ArtBee’s concerns with plastic containers still stand. And, as it turns out, making your own mayo to store in glass containers is easier than you think!
According to Tiffany “Crumbs” of the popular food blog “Don’t Waste the Crumbs,” lemon, egg, olive oil, and kosher salt are the only necessary ingredients for mayonnaise. Readers can whip up a batch of homemade mayo in just five minutes, and can even add some extra spices to mix things up.
The Daily Dot reached out to Gabriel Miller via TikTok comment and direct message, and both Best Foods’ parent company, Unilever, via email.
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