Vegemite

Vegemite on toast.

Vegemite (Template:PronEng) or /ˈvɛdʒiˌmaɪt/ is a dark brown Australian food paste made from yeast extract. It is a spread for sandwiches, toast, crumpets and cracker biscuits, and filling for pastries such as Cheesymite scroll. It is similar to British, New Zealand, and South African Marmite and to Swiss Cenovis.

Vegemite is made from used brewers' yeast extract, a by-product of beer manufacturing, and various vegetable and spice additives. It is salty, slightly bitter, and malty — similar to beef bouillon. The texture is smooth and sticky. It is not as intensely flavoured as British Marmite and it is less sweet than the New Zealand version of Marmite.

Vegemite has not been successfully marketed in other countries,even though it is friggin o for awesome, apart from New Zealand and to a lesser extent in the United Kingdom, despite being owned by US food company Kraft Foods. When seen in the United States, the Vegemite label often does not contain the Kraft logo.

History

Fred Walker's company first created and sold Vegemite in 1922.

In 1919, prior to the introduction of Vegemite, Sanitarium Health Food Company began manufacturing a version of Vegemite's biggest competitor Marmite, in New Zealand and shipping it to Australia. Vegemite was invented in 1922 by food technologist Dr. Cyril P. Callister when, following the disruption of British Marmite imports after World War I his employer, the Australian company Fred Walker & Co., gave him the task of developing a spread from the used yeast being dumped by breweries. Callister had been hired by the chairman Fred Walker. Vegemite was registered as a trademark in Australia that same year. The registration was later transferred to Kraft, a US multinational, which has maintained an interest in Vegemite since 1925. Callister used autolysis to break down the yeast cells from waste obtained from the Carlton & United brewery. Concentrating the clear liquid vitamin extract and blending with salt and celery and onion extracts formed a sticky black paste. Following a nationwide competition with a prize of £50 to find a name for the new spread, the name Vegemite was selected out of a hat by Fred Walker's daughter, Sheilah. Vegemite first appeared on the market in 1923 with advertising emphasising the value of Vegemite to children's health but failed to sell very well. Faced with growing competition from Marmite, from 1928 to 1935 the product was renamed as Parwill in order to make use of the advertising slogan, "Marmite but Parwill", a convoluted pun on words ie: "Ma [mother] might [like the taste] but Pa [father] will." This attempt to expand market share was unsuccessful and the name was changed back to Vegemite, unfortunately as Parwill it had lost market share and did not recover. In 1925 Walker had established the Kraft Walker Cheese Co as a joint venture company with J.L. Kraft & Bros to market processed cheese and, following the failure of Parwill, in 1935 he used the success of Kraft Walker Cheese to promote Vegemite. In a two year campaign to promote sales, Vegemite was given away free with Kraft Walker cheese products via coupon redemption and this was followed by poetry competitions with imported American Pontiac cars being offered as prizes. Sales responded and in 1939 Vegemite was officially endorsed by the British Medical Association as a rich source of B vitamins. Rationed in Australia during World War II it was included in Australian Army rations and by the late 1940s was used in nine out of ten Australian homes. Vegemite is produced in Australia at Kraft Foods’ Port Melbourne manufacturing facility which produces more than 22 million jars per year. Virtually unchanged from Callister's original recipe, Vegemite now far outsells Marmite and other similar spreads in Australia. The billionth jar of Vegemite was produced in October 2008.

Vegemite and cheese

During the 1990s, Kraft released a product in Australia known as Vegemite Singles. It combined two of Kraft's major products into one. The product consisted of Kraft Singles with Vegemite added, thus creating Vegemite-flavoured cheese. This extension of the Vegemite product line was an attempt by Kraft to capitalise on the enormous popularity of Vegemite and cheese sandwiches (made by placing a slice of cheese into a Vegemite sandwich). Vegemite Singles were later taken off the market, possibly due to poor sales.

Rumour of ban in United States

In October 2006, the Melbourne newspaper, the Herald Sun incorrectly reported that Vegemite had been banned in the United States, and that the United States Customs Service had gone so far as to search Australians entering the country for Vegemite. The story appears to have originated as an anecdote by a traveller who claimed to have been searched by US Customs. Also, a spokesperson for Kraft made a misinformed comment to reporters. The story led to some anti-American comments in blogs and newspapers. The Herald Sun blamed George W. Bush, at the time the president of the United States, for the ban, and encouraged readers to post comments on its website and send emails to the White House.

The US Food and Drug Administration later stated that there were no plans to subject Vegemite to an import ban, or withdraw it from supermarket shelves. The United States Customs and Border Protection also tried to dispel the rumour, stating on its website that "there is no known prohibition on the importation of Vegemite" and "there is no official policy within CBP targeting Vegemite for interception". The story of the "ban" later took on the status of urban legend. While Vegemite has never been popular in the US, it can still be purchased at supermarkets that stock imported food items.

Nutritional information

Vegemite is one of the world’s richest known sources of B vitamins, specifically thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and folic acid, but unlike Marmite and some other yeast extracts, it contains no vitamin B12.

Advertising and branding

Different Vegemite jars - National Museum of Australia

Originally promoted as a healthy food for children, during World War II advertising emphasised its medicinal value:

Vegemite fights with the men up north! If you are one of those who don’t need Vegemite medicinally, then thousands of invalids are asking you to deny yourself of it for the time being.

At the same time "Sister MacDonald" insisted that Vegemite was essential for "infant welfare" in magazines. Later advertisements began to promote the importance of the B complex vitamins to health.

Vegemite's rise to popularity was helped by the marketing campaigns written by J. Walter Thompson advertising that began in 1954, using groups of smiling, attractive healthy children singing a catchy jingle entitled "We're happy little Vegemites".

We're happy little Vegemites
As bright as bright can be.
We all enjoy our Vegemite
For breakfast, lunch and tea.
Our Mummies say we're growing stronger
Every single week
Because we LOVE our Vegemite.
We all ADORE our Vegemite.
IT PUTS A ROSE IN EVERY CHEEK!
We're growing stronger every week!

First aired on radio in 1954 the jingle was transferred to television in 1956. This advertising campaign continued until the late 1960s but, as they were targeted to children, discontinued in favour of ads promoting the product to all ages. In the late 1980s the original black and white television commercial was partially colourised and reintroduced. This commercial is still occasionally run on television today. The two young twin girls who sang this advertising jingle were known as the "Vegemite Twins".

In March 2007, Kraft announced that they were trying to trace the eight original children from the campaign to celebrate the advertisement's fiftieth anniversary and to take part in a new campaign. The 1956 commercial was to be remade with the original children, now grown, to forge a link between "the new generation and the old ad". The media took up the search on Kraft's behalf with all eight children identified in eight days and resulted in many TV specials and interviews in the Australian National media. The 50-year reunion campaign won the Arts, Entertainment & Media Campaign of the Year award at the November 2007 Asia Pacific PR Awards. [1]

Vegemite Cheesybite: new recipe

On 13 June 2009, Kraft released a new version of Vegemite. The new formula combines Vegemite and Kraft cream cheese, spreads more easily and has a considerably less salty, milder taste than the original. To coincide with the release of the new recipe, Kraft ran a competition to give the new flavour a name. The new name was announced during the broadcast of the 2009 AFL Grand Final as iSnack 2.0. The name was chosen by a panel of marketing and communication experts to appeal to a younger market, capitalising on the popularity of Apple's iPod and iPhone.

The choice immediately drew almost universal criticism within Australia. Within days, opinion columns and social networking sites were flooded with derision and vitriol. Several internet memes appeared slamming the name, the most popular being a new Downfall YouTube parody by Melbourne writer and broadcaster Clem Bastow. Several critics also pointed out that the name is not even original; iSnack is the name of an energy bar manufactured by South African company PVM Products and is also the trademark used by Ideal Snacks (iSnack), an American Corn Chip manufacturer. Breville, an Australian appliance maker, also trademarked the term iSnack with IP Australia in 2001 for a "cooking apparatus including snack makers and sandwich toasters; parts and accessories in this class for cooking apparatus", however, the company has not yet manufactured a product using the name.

On 30 September 2009, bowing to significant pressure from consumers, Kraft released plans to abandon the iSnack name, admitting that it may have been a mistake. Kraft's head of corporate affairs Simon Talbot stated "There’s a distinct possibility that we'll be critically evaluating the name... the name isn't resonating with success or favour."

On 2 October 2009, Kraft opened a new poll on its website offering six possible names for the product. These included the three most popular names from the original poll, as well as three others that Kraft considered "worthy of consideration based on consumer feedback". Voters in the poll are also able to indicate a preference for none of the suggested names. The poll introduction notes that "Cheesymite", a name suggested in the original poll, is already trademarked by other organisations. The final name was announced on 7 October 2009 as "Vegemite Cheesybite", receiving 36% of the votes cast, which exceeded 30,000.

Popular culture

• Vegemite was mentioned in the lyrics of the world-wide 1982 hit song "Down Under" by Men at Work:

  I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"

  He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich.

• The Vegemite Tales, by Melanie Tait, is an Australian comic show regularly performed in London's West End.

• In John Williamson's True Blue, the chorus originally mentioned Vegemite. However, the song has since been reworded, in response to publicity pointing out that Vegemite was not Australian owned. Most recorded versions nonetheless feature the original Vegemite lyrics.

  Is it standin' by your mate,

  When he/she's in a fight?

  Or just Vegemite/Oh she'll be right

  True Blue.

See also

• Shelf stable food
• Bovril
• Guinness Yeast Extract
• Promite

External links

• Vegemite.com.au
• Vegemite Song and images
• Superbrands: Brand detail Vegemite