Expert: George Maxwell - 8/16/2007

Question
I recently saw cholesterol-free mayonnaise. How do you make mayonnaise cholesterol-free? I know egg yolks contain cholesterol, and aren't the egg yolks what allows the emulsion to form and the water and oil combine? *The product is labeled as mayonnaise dressing, but the water and oil are definetly combined. **It does contain egg whites

Thanks so much

Answer
HI, and thanks for your question.

The key difference between regular and low-cholesterol mayo is (as you said) that the first one uses egg yolks and the second one uses egg whites.

Depending on the brand, there are a couple of ways that manufacturers use to emulsify low-cholesterol mayo:

1) Egg white will in fact emulsify oils and water: the proteins that it contains carry out this function.
(Egg yolk is more often used as it contains a more efficient emulsifying compound, lecithin).

2) Emulsifying agents / emulsifiers may be added: these are other compounds that carry out the same function, and are ussually synthetic or synthetically extracted.
Look for the words "emulsifying agent" or "emulsifiers" on the ingredients list.

It's interesting to note that low cholesterol mayo is actaully a bit of a maketing gimmick: it still contains really high levels of fat, a high calorie count and even higher than normal levels of salt.

Hope this helps: thanks for your question.

PS: In Europe, where e-numbers are used to designate additives in food, there is another clue:  if the ingredients list an e-number between 400 and 500, this represents an emulsifyer or thickener.