13.1.1 Vegemite
Description
This article is from the soc.culture.australian FAQ, by Stephen Wales with numerous contributions by others.
13.1.1 Vegemite
Vegemite is a spread, made from a yeast extract. Kraft make it in
Australia. It looks kinda like black smooth peanut butter, and tastes
VERY salty.[Glenn]
When I returned to Australia for a visit in 1985 I telephoned the
folks at Kraft in Pt. Melbourne. Here is the basis of what the man
told me regarding its manufacture:
First the yeast cells are taken from the breweries. For those of you
into making home made beer you know what I mean. For the others, this
is a very thick tan colored "liquid" smelling like beer but loaded
with spent and still alive yeast cells. This "liquid" it then treated
so the yeast cells undergo "cell lysis" which means the cells burst
open. The liquid is then "washed" (his term) to remove the cell
walls. The internal contents of the cell are then mixed with salt,
dried parsley and spices etc.(whatever that is -- I have not been able
to find etc. in Australia nor North America) I guess it is the etc that
gives Vegemite its characteristic flavour!
Anyways in closing, the man said that it was packaged is small tins (I
have seen 1 oz. cans of it in Australian Army ration packs) and in
various containers up to barrel (45 gal?) size.
[DT] Vegemite and Marmite are not the same thing they were different
product brands. Marmite was actually in production and on the shelves
well and truly before vegemite ever existed. When Vegemite was first
released it had a very difficult time - very few people bought it. It
was apparently taken off the market for a short time and given a new
(temporary) name after a competition was held. The winner came up with
the name Parwill. Followed with the slogan "If marmite then parwill".
Fortunately this also had marketing problems. It wasn't really until
the "war to end all wars" that the renamed vegemite started to sell.
It was all the shortages of food stuffs and the "scientific" sell
using the vitamin B argument.
If you really want a good amount of information I suggest that you
write to:
Kraft Australia Foods Limited
Consumer Advisory Service
Salmon Street
Port Melbourne Victoria 3207
AUSTRALIA
(See section 6.3 on Australiana in the U.S. for where to get vegemite)
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