The Best & Worst Mayonnaise Brands

If mayo is a staple in your house, it’s worth flipping the jar over and checking the ingredients.

Mayonnaise is mostly oil, which means the type and quality of oil used really matters. And after a new 2026 UC Davis study raised some major questions about products marketed as being made with avocado oil, I’ve officially updated my mayo recommendations.

Here’s what I’m buying, what I’m skipping and the easiest way to make your own.

Click here to shop the current mayo I recommend!

WORST: Traditional Mayonnaise Made With Soybean Oil

Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise

The first ingredient in Hellmann’s Real Mayo is soybean oil.

Its current ingredient list includes soybean oil, water, eggs, vinegar, egg yolks, salt, sugar, lemon juice concentrate, calcium disodium EDTA and natural flavors.

Kraft Real Mayo

Kraft is very similar. Soybean oil is also the first ingredient, followed by water, vinegar, eggs, sugar, natural flavor and calcium disodium EDTA.

I personally prefer to limit highly refined soybean oil, especially when there are options made primarily with extra virgin olive oil.

And because mayo is mostly oil, this isn’t an ingredient buried at the bottom of the label—it makes up a significant portion of what you’re eating.

My take: Skip these when you can and choose a mayo made with a higher-quality oil.

WHAT ABOUT PRIMAL KITCHEN & CHOSEN FOODS?

This is where my recommendations have recently changed.

Primal Kitchen and Chosen Foods used to be two of my go-to mayonnaise brands.

And looking strictly at their ingredient lists, I still love what they’re trying to do.

Primal Kitchen’s classic mayo lists just seven ingredients: avocado oil, organic vinegar, organic eggs, organic egg yolks, salt, rosemary extract and mustard seed extract.

Chosen Foods also has a very simple ingredient list centered around avocado oil, eggs, vinegar, mustard, salt and rosemary extract.

But Then the New UC Davis Study Came Out

In July 2026, UC Davis researchers published a study testing 54 processed foods that listed avocado oil as their only oil ingredient.

They found that 48 out of 54 products—or 89%—had oil profiles inconsistent with authentic avocado oil.

For mayonnaise specifically, 71% of the mayos tested did not meet the study’s avocado-oil authenticity criteria.

Products from both Primal Kitchen and Chosen Foods were among those raising concerns in the testing. Chosen Foods has publicly disputed the study’s conclusions and says it does not add seed oils to its products and tests its avocado oil for purity.

Importantly, UC Davis researchers themselves said the brands may not even know this is happening.

According to lead researcher Selina Wang, the adulteration may originate farther back in the supply chain with oil suppliers or brokers. UC Davis also said manufacturers could do more testing to verify the authenticity of the oil they purchase.

So I’m not saying these companies are intentionally putting other oils into their mayonnaise.

But as a consumer, I want to know that I’m actually getting what I’m paying a premium for.

My Current Take

For now, I’m personally holding off on Primal Kitchen and Chosen Foods avocado oil mayo until there is more transparency and verification around the supply chain.

Their ingredient lists are still far better than many traditional mayonnaise brands, so I would still consider them a better option ingredient-wise than conventional soybean-oil mayo.

But they’re no longer my first choice.

BETTER: Graza Fancy Extra Virgin Olive Oil Mayo

If you want a store-bought option right now, Graza Fancy Mayo is my current pick.

The biggest reason?

It’s made with extra virgin olive oil as its only oil, and EVOO makes up about 70% of the product.

The ingredient list includes:

Extra virgin olive oil, water, cage-free egg yolks, sugar, white wine vinegar, salt, garlic, lemon juice concentrate, xanthan gum, natural flavor, tocopherols and ascorbyl palmitate.

Is it absolutely perfect? No.

It does contain xanthan gum and natural flavor, which I’d ideally leave out.

But those ingredients appear much farther down the ingredient list, meaning they’re present in smaller amounts than the main ingredients.

And most importantly for me, the primary ingredient is extra virgin olive oil.

Interestingly, the UC Davis researchers also tested 20 processed foods made with olive oil alongside the avocado oil products—and only one of the 20 olive-oil products failed their purity testing.

That makes olive-oil-based mayo especially appealing to me right now.

BEST OF THE BEST: Make Your Own Mayo

Want complete control over your ingredients?

Homemade mayo is ridiculously easy to make, and you only need five ingredients.

Easy Homemade Olive Oil Mayo

Ingredients

• 1 pasteurized egg, room temperature
• 1 cup mild-tasting extra virgin olive oil or verified avocado oil brand (Like Marianne’s) 
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

Add the egg, lemon juice, Dijon mustard and sea salt to a tall, narrow jar.

Pour the olive oil on top and let everything sit for about 30 seconds.

Place an immersion blender all the way at the bottom of the jar.

Blend for about 10–15 seconds without moving the blender. You should start to see thick, creamy mayo forming at the bottom.

Once it starts emulsifying, slowly lift the blender upward to incorporate the remaining oil.

Taste and add a little more lemon juice or salt if needed.

That’s it!

Store your homemade mayo in an airtight container in the refrigerator and use it within about 3–4 days. Because the egg isn’t cooked, I recommend using a pasteurized egg.

The Bottom Line

My mayo ranking right now:

SKIP:
Hellmann’s and Kraft soybean-oil-based mayos.

HOLDING OFF FOR NOW:
Primal Kitchen and Chosen Foods avocado-oil mayos until we get more clarity and supply-chain verification following the UC Davis findings.

BETTER STORE-BOUGHT OPTION:
Graza Fancy Mayo made with extra virgin olive oil.

BEST:
Make your own mayo with extra virgin olive oil, egg, lemon, Dijon and salt.

This is also a good reminder that ingredient labels only tell us so much. When we’re paying a premium for a product specifically because it claims to use a certain oil, we should be able to trust that we’re actually getting that oil.

Read the Research

UC Davis overview of the 2026 study:
Read the UC Davis avocado oil study summary

Published study in Applied Food Research:
View the published research

UC Davis has also previously found significant quality and purity problems in bottled avocado oils, including a 2020 study in which 82% of samples were either oxidized or mixed with other oils.