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 umami or 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.
History Of Vegemite:
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 to make use of the advertising slogan, “Marmite but Parwill”, a convoluted pun on “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, Vegemite 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.
Preparation :
The most common method of eating Vegemite is on toasted bread with one layer of butter or margarine before spreading a thin layer of Vegemite. A Vegemite sandwich may consist of two slices of buttered bread, Vegemite, cheese and lettuce, but other ingredients such as avocado and tomato can be added as well.
The official Vegemite website contains several recipes using Vegemite on meals such as pies, burgers, pizzas, pastries and dips.
It can also be used as a filling for pastries, such as the Cheesymite scroll.
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 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, only 4 days after the announcement, bowed 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.” Two days later, 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 were able to indicate a seventh option of not liking any of the suggested names. The poll introduction noted that “Cheesymite”, a name suggested in the original poll, was already trademarked by other organisations. The final name was announced on 7 October 2009 as “Vegemite Cheesybite”, with Kraft claiming that it had received 36% of the 30,357 votes that were cast for a name option, or approximately 10,900 votes. It was later revealed that around 10,000 votes were registered for the “none of the names” option
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