Improved laws banning chicken cages is one way to tackle the issue. But for Josh Tetrick, CEO and Founder of Hampton Creek Foods, “obliterating” the caged-egg industry is another.

“We don’t want to take a percentage of the caged-chicken market,” says Tetrick. “We want to end the practice altogether, by making to make our product more affordable and better than eggs.”

Tetrick’s product is, essentially, fake eggs. The company looked at the 22 different ways eggs are used in cooking (ie – emulsification, aeration, binding) and found several ways plants could fill in for the 79 billion eggs laid each year.  They came up with a range of substitutes to suit varying needs, like for use in baking and as a condiment for sandwiches.

The results are pretty remarkable.  In a side by side taste test with a real live chocolate chip cookie made with egg, I could not tell which was made with a Hampton Creek “egg.” The mayo too, is smooth and thick, without the odd aftertaste of other fake mayonnaises I’ve had.  In other words, the plant-based eggs functioned just as they should, by not revealing they were actually not eggs.

Yet Tetrick’s “eggs” may be a hard sell for those shopping the aisles of Whole Foods, where his Mayo will be sold nationally in November.  While tiny, often dirty cages may not be what consumers envision when they crack their morning egg, they are also not envisioning scientists in white coats engineering their condiments. “Hampton Creek” may sound farmy, but in reality the product is created in a lab far from any field.