Hellmann's and Best Foods are brand names that are used for the same line of mayonnaise and other food products. The Hellmann's brand is sold in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and also in Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Canada. The Best Foods brand is sold in the United States west of the Rockies, and also in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
Hellmann's and Best Foods are basically marketed the same way. They both have similar logos and web sites, and they have the same English slogan: "Bring out the best." The Spanish slogan is "Haz una cara...Hellmann's!" (roughly translated to "Make a Hellman's face!"). In Brazil it is "Hellmann's, a verdadeira maionese" (Hellmann's, the true mayonnaise).
Both brands were previously sold by the U.S.-based Bestfoods Corporation, which also sold several other food products in addition to Hellmann's and Best Foods mayonnaise. Bestfoods, before 1997 known as CPC international, was acquired by Unilever in 2000.
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In 1905, Richard Hellmann from Vetschau, Germany, opened a delicatessen on Columbus Avenue in New York City, where he used his wife's recipe to sell the first ready-made mayonnaise. It became so popular that he began selling it in bulk to other stores. In 1912 he built a factory for producing Mrs. Hellmann's mayonnaise. It was mass marketed and called Hellmann's Blue Ribbon Mayonnaise. It was so successful, Hellmann closed his delicatessen by 1917 to devote full time to his mayonnaise business.
While Hellmann's Mayonnaise thrived on the U.S. East Coast, the California company Best Foods introduced their own mayonnaise. Best Foods Mayonnaise became popular on the West Coast.
In 1932, Best Foods bought the Hellmann's brand. By then both mayonnaises had such commanding market shares in their respective halves of the country that the company decided that both brands and recipes be preserved. To this day:
In 1955, Best Foods acquired Rosefield Packing Co., makers of Skippy peanut butter.
Then Best Foods was bought by Corn Products Refining Company in 1958 to form Corn Products Company, which in 1969 became CPC International Inc. In the United Kingdom, Hellmann's mayonnaise arrived in 1961. By the late 1980s, it had over 50% market share. [1]
Around 1968 the Best Foods brand added the Blue Ribbon from the Hellmann's brand, making them more sister products. Since 2007, both brands have exactly the same design.
In 1997, CPC International split in 2 companies: Bestfoods, becoming its own company once more, and Corn Product International. [2]
Bestfoods was acquired by Unilever in 2000.[3]
| Nutritional value per serving | |
|---|---|
| Serving size | 1 Tbsp (13 g) |
| Energy | 90 kcal (380 kJ) |
| Carbohydrates | 0 g |
| Fat | 10 g (15%) |
| - saturated | 1.5 g (8%) |
| - trans | 0 g |
| Protein | 0 g |
| Sodium | 90 mg (6%) |
| Cholesterol | 5 mg (2%) |
| Note: Both brands have the same nutritional values Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. Source: Hellmann's, Best Foods |
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When Best Foods acquired the Hellmann's brand, it decided to preserve the respective recipes for both mayonnaises. Today, the two products are made in the same plant. However, at least as recently as June 2003, the recipes were almost, but not entirely, identical. From the company's FAQs at the time:
Both labels contain the same ingredients in the same 'relative quantity' order: soybean oil, water, whole eggs & egg yolks, vinegar, salt, sugar, lemon juice, calcium disodium EDTA, and natural flavors. Best Foods' may contain more lemon juice, though the ingredients rank ordered by volume are the same as Hellmann's.[5] Still, the fine print in the company's marketing and web sites state that "Hellmann's is known as Best Foods west of the Rockies"[6] and "Best Foods is known as Hellmann's east of the Rockies"[7] [emphasis added].
Maintaining the separate identities of both brands poses some unique challenges. Marketing campaigns for both products are identical; however, Hellmann's and Best Foods must make separate television commercials for each product and cannot utilize nationwide media to market their product.[8]
The following is a list of products that are sold under the Hellmann's and Best Foods brands in the United States and Canada. In other countries, especially Europe, Hellmann's is a major player in the dressings market too, with a wide range of flavors and formats:
In Mexico:
In Brazil:
In Peru:
In Argentina: