The premise is almost too tidy to believe: the cheapest product in a 29-jar blind test wins on taste. But that's what Choice's panel of three food professionals — food consultant Brigid Treloar, chef Serkan Tamcelik, and food technologist Petra Sugiarto — found when they worked through every supermarket mayonnaise they could source in Australia. Aldi's Colway Real Mayonnaise, at $2.79 a jar or 61 cents per 100g, tied for first with Woolworths Whole Egg Mayonnaise on a score of 80%. The Woolworths version costs 64 cents per 100g. What the judges were actually looking for is clarifying. Treloar describes the assessment in terms that would embarrass most restaurant menus: does it dollop, does it smell like anything (it shouldn't), and does the emulsion actually hold together? The last point turned out to be the dividing line. "In some of them, it was like… here's a little bit of salt, here's a little bit of sugar, here's a little bit of oil, but it didn't come together," she said. A mayonnaise that doesn't emulsify isn't mayonnaise — it's a sauce that gave up. The silver medal went to another Aldi product, Colway Authentic Mayonnaise at 77% and 78 cents per 100g. Treloar flagged its slightly orange appearance — "been under the sunlamps" — but the flavour profile held up. Hellmann's Plant Based Mayo also hit 77%, landing as the best vegan option; thick and glossy but slightly gummy. Kewpie, which has the loudest fanbase of any mayonnaise in Australia, came in at 67%, mid-table. Its distinction — highest egg content of the field at 9.5% egg yolk — translated to a more savoury, soya-forward profile that the judges found comparatively prominent. The low end of the table tells the more interesting story. Coles 97% Fat Free Mayonnaise scored 47%, bottom of the field. The judges cited a "translucent, pale appearance" and a "thick, gummy, glue-like consistency." The sugar content explains most of it: 18.9g per 100g, at least double nearly every other product tested. Praise 99% Fat Free Traditional Mayo actually had the highest sugar reading of all — 20.9g per 100g — but still scored 63%. The fat-free category, it turns out, compensates for the absence of oil with sugar and thickening agents, producing something that technically resembles mayonnaise from a distance. The broader finding embedded in the data is worth flagging: 27 of the 29 mayonnaises tested contained sugar. Traditional French mayonnaise — egg yolks, neutral oil, lemon or vinegar, dijon mustard — contains none. The sugar is a cost-management tool; when manufacturers reduce egg content or use cheaper oils, sweetness fills in the textural and flavour gaps. Treloar notes that emulsifying agents serve a similar function, papering over what a lower egg ratio can't achieve structurally. The result is that most supermarket mayonnaises are, technically, not mayonnaise in any classical sense. Treloar described the 29-jar session as one of the most gruelling tests she's done — "it can make you feel quite sick" — which at least confirms the panel took the work seriously. The result, if you're buying: Aldi Colway Real Mayonnaise is the value answer with no asterisks. If you want Woolworths, it costs three cents more per 100g for an equal score. If you're vegan, Hellmann's Plant Based is the only real option at the top of the field. And if you're loyal to Kewpie, you're paying for a genuinely different product — more savoury, more egg-forward — not a better one by this panel's criteria.
