"[11] In October 2014, competitor Unilever sued Hampton Creek Foods alleging the "JUST Mayo" name misled consumers into believing the product contained real eggs.

[19][20] Public sentiment favored Hampton Creek and more than 100,000 people eventually signed a Change.org petition asking Unilever to "stop bullying sustainable food companies.

[25] However, the Food and Drug Administration sent a warning letter saying the Just Mayo name was misleading to consumers, since the product must contain real eggs to be called "mayonnaise.

"[26][27] In December 2015, Hampton Creek reached an agreement with the FDA to make it more clear in the Just Mayo packaging that it does not contain real eggs.

[28] Publicity from the lawsuit[6][21] and an egg shortage from the avian bird flu[29] helped Hampton Creek grow.

In late 2015, several former employees anonymously alleged Hampton Creek was exaggerating the science behind its products, mislabeling the ingredients in pre-production samples, and manipulated employment contracts.

[30][31] Then, emails secured through the Freedom of Information Act showed that the American Egg Board hired Edelman Public Relations to engage in a campaign targeting Hampton Creek's reputation.

[36][37][38] Then, in 2016, a Bloomberg story reported on evidence inferring that Hampton Creek bought its own products off of store shelves in order to inflate sales numbers during fund-raising.

[39] The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice started an inquiry[40][41] that was closed in March 2017[42] after concluding the allegations were insignificant.

[4]: 17  Late that year, it also substantially expanded its laboratory testing of prospective plant proteins, using robots and automation.

[44] In June 2017, Target stopped selling Hampton Creek products after seeing an anonymous letter alleging food safety issues, such as Salmonella and Listeria at Eat Just's manufacturing facility.

[45][46] Target said none of its customers reported getting sick[46] and an FDA investigation found no contaminants in Hampton Creek's products.

[55] Through the joint venture, Proterra promised to invest up to $100 million and, with Eat Just, started building a manufacturing facility in Singapore.

[59] In May, 2022, Eat Just signed a contract with ABEC Inc., which manufactures bioprocess equipment, to build 10 bioreactors for growing meat.

[65] In 2021, the company was sued by the landlord of its San Francisco headquarters, 2000 Folsom Partners LLC, over $2.6 million in overdue rent payments.

Eat Just was also sued in 2021 by the Archer-Daniels-Midland Company over failing to pay a $15,000 2015 bill for hemp seeds, and by VWR International for $189,000 in unpaid debt.

[10][18] For example, plant proteins are analyzed for molecular weight, amino acid sequences,[13] and performance under heat or pressure.