Vegemite

I believe you can’t have a blog about Australia without mentioning Vegemite. The word “icon” is used very loosely in Australia, but Vegemite is definitely an Australian icon. The yeasty spread, beloved in Australia, is considered such a national nosh that some people say it is a must-eat on Australia Day. It is considered a “Symbol of Australia” (like kangaroo, koala, Uluru or the boomerang) by the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.

So what is Vegemite, and why is it so special?

Vegemite is a spread for sandwiches, toast, crumpets and cracker biscuits. Maybe you remember the song “Down Under” of the Australian band “Men At Work”. The lyrics depict an Australian man travelling the globe, who meets people who are interested in Australia. The lyrics include a prominent reference to a Vegemite sandwich:

Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six foot tall and full of muscle
I said… Do you speak-a my language?
He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich

Possibly you know the British Marmite. Vegemite is similar in consistency and taste (although many Australians would probably heavily dispute that). It was developed in 1922 by Cyril Callister and originally made from leftover brewers’ yeast extract obtained from the Carlton & United brewery. The spread has various vegetable and spice additives and is salty, slightly bitter, malty, and rich in glutamates – giving it a savoury flavour similar to beef bouillon. It contains 3.45% sodium, which equates to a salt content of approximately 8.6%.

Vegemite was launched in 1923 by the Australian company Fred Walker & Co. The name was selected by Fred Walker’s daughter. In 1925, Walker had established the Kraft Walker Cheese Co. as a joint venture company with the US-American J.L. Kraft & Bros to market processed cheese and in 1935 he used the success of Kraft Walker Cheese to promote Vegemite. In a two-year campaign, it was given away free with Kraft Walker cheese products.

Rich source of Vitamin B

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 provisions and by the late 1940s was used in nine out of ten Australian homes. Today it far outsells Marmite and other similar spreads in Australia. The country’s residents consume 22 million jars a year. The billionth jar was produced in October 2008. Only 2 percent of it is sold outside the country.

How to eat Vegemite?

A common way of eating Vegemite is on toasted bread with a layer of butter or margarine. If you try the savoury spread the first time, have in mind that due to its strong flavour only spread a small amount of it on your toast. Foreigners often made the mistake of applying the paste too thickly (it’s not peanut butter). Australians are fast to tell you. In 2020 American actor Tom Hanks (in Coronavirus isolation in Australia) was publicly criticized for spreading Vegemite too thickly.

The actor Hugh Jackman, an Australian, once demonstrated on a US-American Show how to really eat Vegemite.

A Vegemite sandwich may consist of two slices of buttered bread, Vegemite, and cheese, but other ingredients such as lettuce, avocado and tomato can be added as well. But there are many more variants with Vegemite, like cheesy scrolls, curry, vegetarian pho or a Singapore blue swimmer crab … Try it.

How does it taste?

Well, that’s a tricky question. The majority of Australians love it. I personally believe you have to grow up with Vegemite to appreciate it. I don’t know many non-Australians who favour that yeast spread.

U.S. President Barack Obama, in response to a question in March 2011 during a joint visit with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to a high school in Virginia, gave his impression of Vegemite by stating “It’s horrible”. Following a description by Gillard, he said: “So, it’s like a quasi-vegetable by-product paste that you smear on your toast for breakfast – sounds good, doesn’t it?”

The Australian actor Hugh Jackman once compared it to something scraped off the floor of a gas station.

In a 2013 episode of his show, the US-American comedian and television presenter Steve Harvey was offered a jar of Vegemite by an Australian audience member. After tasting a small amount of it, he stated: “Vegemite sounds like a pesticide. That’s about damn near what it tastes like.”

When I was a teenager back in Europe I had about 16 budgerigars (an Australian parrot found wild throughout the drier parts of the country) in an aviary. At one stage a budgie became sick and the vet gave the bird a medicine that looked and smelled like Vegemite (I clearly remember the smell). Now I have the feeling it was even Vegemite. Australian birds need an Australian rich source of B vitamins :-).

Vegemite is a taste that frankly defies description. If you want to experience Australia, you honestly have to try it and form your own opinion.

An Australian icon owned by Americans

It seems like a lot of Australians didn’t realize the fact that Vegemite actually has not been wholly Australian-owned since 1935. Even though it is an Australian icon, the truth was bitter to some as its taste, Vegemite has for decades been American-owned.

After visiting America, in 1926 Fred Walker formed a joint venture with Kraft Foods – the Kraft Walker Cheese Co. – to manufacture Kraft Processed Cheddar. When Fred died in 1935, Fred Walker & Co. was merged into Kraft Walker.  From that point on, the spread was partly American-owned.

In 1952 the company became Kraft Foods Limited. Subsequently, the US company acquired the rest of the Australian ownership, which at the time was sitting at just under 50 per cent.  As a result the Kraft logo appeared on the Vegemite packaging for the first time.

After that, tracking the ownership of Vegemite becomes complicated, as Kraft became involved in a complex series of take-overs, mergers and sell-offs. At the end of 1988, Philip Morris purchased Kraft for US$12.9 billion. The following year Kraft merged with Philip Morris’s General Foods unit. Further corporate deals ensued and in 2011 the company split into two divisions, the one newly  named Mondelez International becoming proprietors of several of the Australian brands. Including the beloved Vegemite.

Bega Cheese Limited purchased the brand in 2017, bringing it under Australian ownership for the first time in over 90 years.

Criticism

The Australian entrepreneur Richard Harold ‘Dick’ Smith once said about Vegemite “I used to love it but now I know it’s American owned I just can’t eat it”. The deal that has returned the Australian icon to Australian hands (BEGA) has delighted Dick Smith. Though Bega too has dabbled with foreign ownership, with the New Zealand company Fonterra at one time owning part of the Australian cheese-maker. However, Fonterra sold its 9 per cent shareholding in 2015. It seems that Vegemite is safely back in Australian hands – at least until the corporate merry-go-round starts again.

Vegemite was mentioned in the original version of John Williamson‘s song “True Blue“. He removed the reference in a later version of the song because Vegemite was not Australian-owned. According to Williamson’s website, it was “carelessly sold off (‘like sponge cake’) to the multi-national Kraft”. Williamson apparently didn’t know that already in 1952 it was carelessly sold off, long time before he wrote his song …

Miscellaneous

In April 1984, a 115-gram (4.1 oz) jar of Vegemite became the first product in Australia to be electronically scanned at a checkout.

Vegemite is banned from Victorian prisons, with the bans beginning to come into effect from the 1990s, to prevent inmates from brewing alcohol using the paste’s high yeast content, despite the fact that Vegemite contains no live yeast.

Since 2020 Vegemite is available in a squeeze top bottle in supermarkets across Australia. But being an Australian icon, changes are not always welcome. Critics were quick to slam the product with many accusing the manufacturer of tampering with the signature recipe to make it thin enough to squeeze. They probably forgot that already in 1996 a toothpaste-like ‘travel tube’ was released.

You find a lot of clothing in Australia with the Vegemite symbol on it. The Australian retailer of clothing “Best and Less” has a whole Vegemite collection for the family and the Australian sneaker brand “Volley” offers a “Vegemite heritage” shoe …