Is Hellmann’s Mayonnaise Being Discontinued?

Are the rumors true? Did Hellman’s just go to hell, mann? The internet was awash with frantic questions such as these on Monday. Why? Because a now-deleted Facebook post from the mayo company itself reported that the brand was “discontinuing Hellmann’s until further notice” due to “high inflation and import costs.” People panicked. Is Hellmann’s mayonnaise being discontinued? On a random Monday in January? How could they do this to us? They already hit us with Mayo Nog in December—they didn’t need to kick us while we were down.

So, that leaves the mayonnaise-shaped elephant in the room: Is Hellmann’s mayonnaise being discontinued or not?

Will egg salad, tuna salad, turkey sandwiches, and homemade thousand island dressing cease to exist as we know them? The short answer? “Hell no, mann.” For the time being, we get to keep our mayo. That is, unless you live in South Africa, where Hellmann’s mayo is, in fact, being discontinued due to inflation and import costs, and whose residents were the only ones meant to see the original errant Facebook post.

Phew. Hellman’s mayonnaise, you really had us going there for a second. You know what they say, “America runs on mayo.”

Now you may be wondering, how big a deal is this in South Africa? How prolific was the brand there anyway? Well, based on the number of views on their Instagram reels, I’d say Hellman’s roughly 20,000 avid South African fans are going to be pretty torn up about this—and the other 50.37 million people in South Africa will find another brand of mayo to use and not think all that much about it.

Side note: Want to hear a fun way that mayo is used in South Africa? Who am I kidding, of course you do! Well, my life was changed a few years back when my mom’s coworker from South Africa introduced us to bread salad and, boy, does this stuff reek of the American Midwest. It is exactly what it sounds like: cubes of bread (like croutons), ham cubes, gherkins, and cheese cubes, all tossed in mayo and mustard. It has the same energy as ambrosia salad (in that it pushes the definition of “salad” to new and less green lengths) but, surprisingly, was not invented in Minnesota.