Vegan Mayo Maker Hampton Creek Reveals New Egg Substitute

San Francisco-based food start-up Hampton Creek hopes to subvert the old saying that you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs by introducing their new vegan egg substitute called “Just Scramble.” The company already avoids eggs use in its best known product, Just Mayo, a vegan mayonnaise product, and in other Just food items, such as cookie dough.

Now the brand’s egg replacement, which comes in liquid form, is on the menu at Castro cafe Flore on Market Street, where it’s served as a scramble with spinach, mushroom, and goat cheese. From there, Just Scramble will become available at more Bay Area restaurants, and eventually directly to consumers at grocery stores.

At least superficially, it’s a rollout campaign reminiscent of the one for faux-beef Impossible Burger. That popular product, manufactured in Oakland, first became available at restaurants where its presentation was carefully controlled, like Jardiniere and Cockscomb, before spreading to more restaurants.

Hampton Creek recently secured FDA safety approval for Just Scramble, which is made from a mung bean protein isolate the company is hailing as a breakthrough. Meanwhile, the company is at work on a lab-grown meat product and prototypes of a vegan ice cream product, which Eater SF sampled this summer. To keep pursuing these and other products, Hampton Creek announced new funding from investment firms Radicle Impact and Blue Horizon.

It’s all sunny news for a company that’s had darker moments. A leadership shake up this summer, for example, left Hampton Creek cofounder and CEO Josh Tetrick as the only member of the company’s board. The other members have since been substituted.

• Hampton Creek attempts to scramble the egg industry with new plant-based product [SF Chronicle]