We went to the supermarket once and, on the condiment aisle, were a number of jars of mayonnaise. We reached for one and noticed that it was “broken”–i.e., it appeared to have solidified and the lower part “broke” from the upper part. We decided not to buy it, deeming it spolied.
Was it?
You’ll need to describe “broke” better. It was probably fine, but so is a broken cookie. That doesn’t mean I want to pay full price for it.
I mean that it was apparently solid inside the jar, with a gap between the upper and lower parts; the gap was about a half-inch or less in width.
I don’t know how you would know that it was solid without opening the jar, but I’ll have to take your word for it. Obviously mayonnaise should not be solid. Something was wrong with it. It’s doubtful that it was unsafe, but since something clearly had to have gone wrong in manufacturing, all bets are off. It’s my understanding that commercial mayonnaise is too acidic to support anything harmful, but it certainly can spoil.
It sounds like it had separated - – eggs v oil, which are the main ingredients in mayo. Could be as simple as the batch having too much oil in it or not mixed properly to begin with. Or it could have been filled with rat poop that sank to the bottom and gelled. 
I wouldn’t have purchased it either.
I agree. Mass produced Mayo is so Chemically emulsified that it can sit stable for years unopened. If it actually broke then either it’s really fricken old, made wrong,or exposed to the wrong temperature.
I doubt it was spoiled or dangerous, but I would guess it is gonna be crappy tasting mayo.
Freezing will cause mayo to break. My money’s on frozen & thawed
Real mayo (that is, not Miracle Whip or similar “salad dressings”) isn’t very viscous and can sorta “break” off in clumps. (dig out a heaping spoonful and then let it slowly slide off the end of the spoon for a more practical example of what I’m talking about.) If, for example, it was stored upside-down for a period of time such that had all gravitated towards the top, and then flipped over, there’s a possibility that, in sliding back down, the top half of it was stuck more firmly to the jar than the bottom half, and so a clump of it managed to separate and sink to the bottom.
Of course, this can happen if it’s been sitting around so long the oil has separated too, so either way I wouldn’t take the chance.
I’m moving this from MPSIMS to … (GQ? Cafe Society? flips coin) … Cafe Society.