1.There's no accounting for taste - Sunday Times
2.Aussies up in arms over US ban on Vegemite - The Times
GM WATCH COMMENT: In case anyone gives any credence to US attacks on other countries as way too cautious, this is a country that stands accused of banning Vegemite!
Vegemite's a salty spread much loved by Australians (the Brit equivalent is Marmite). According to the articles below, the US ban has even been taken to the point of searching Australians for jars of the spread as they come into the country.
Daniel Fogarty - an Aussie ex-pat who reports being asked by a US border guard if he was carrying any Vegemite - says, "I was flabbergasted."
The FDA has denied there's a ban but its refusal of Vegemite over labelling issues can be seen here:
http://www.fda.gov/ora/oasis/1/ora_oasis_i_25.html
and here:
http://www.fda.gov/ora/oasis/2/ora_oasis_i_37.html
And there seem to be refusals for Marmite too!
http://www.fda.gov/ora/oasis/9/ora_oasis_i_37.html
http://www.fda.gov/ora/oasis/8/ora_oasis_i_27.html
Folic acid - given in the first article as the source of the ban - occurs naturally in yeast extracts like Vegemite. Folic acid has long been advised for women during pregnancy to help prevent neural tube disorders such as spina bifida. Recent research suggests folic acid may also help prevent heart attacks and stroke.
Of course, any apparent health concerns may just be a blind for an issue of homeland security.
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1.There's no accounting for taste
The Sunday Times, October 21 2006
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20623973-2,00.html
THE US has banned Vegemite, even to the point of searching Australians for jars of the spread when they enter the country.
The bizarre crackdown was prompted because Vegemite has been deemed illegal under US food laws.
The great Aussie icon - faithfully carried around the world by travellers from downunder - contains folate, which under a technicality, America allows to be added only to breads and cereals.
Australian expatriates in the US said enforcement of the ban had been gradually stepped up and was now ruining lifelong traditions of Vegemite on toast for breakfast.
Kraft spokeswoman Joanna Scott said: "The (US) Food and Drug Administration doesn't allow the import of Vegemite simply because the recipe does have the addition of folic acid."
The US was "a minor market" for Vegemite, she said.
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2.Aussies up in arms over US ban on Vegemite
By Martin Waller and Robin Pagnamenta The Times, October 25 2006 http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13129-2420233,00.html
IT IS brown, salty and spreadable, it is known to Britons only from an obscure and irritating 1980s pop song*, and it is as defining a part of Australian culture as marsupials and Bondi Beach. And the Americans want to ban it.
The near-100,000 Australian and New Zealand expatriates in the US are up in arms at attempts to deprive them of their beloved Vegemite, a vegetable spread vaguely analogous, sources suggest, to Marmite. Vegemite has fallen foul of an obscure US dietary law that bans folate, one of its ingredients, from anything other than bread and cereals.
Like British expats smuggling in Earl Grey tea, Aussies and Kiwis have circumvented the ban by bringing in supplies from visits home. But they are now finding, according to reports in the Australian press, that these shipments are being blocked at the border by over-zealous US officials.
The US Food and Drug Administration is not aware of attempts to bar imports, but Australia is in uproar. Daniel Fogarty, a Geelong man who now lives in Calgary, Canada, told The Courier Mail that he was asked by a border guard if he was carrying any Vegemite. "I was flabbergasted."
Paul Watkins, who owns a store specialising in Australian products in Texas, said he had been forced to stop importing the spread some months ago.
Postings on the paper's website are largely split between indignant Australians and supportive Americans. Natalie Howden of Central Coast, NSW, says: "This from a country who (sic) thinks eating dounuts (sic) for breakfast is a good thing!"
From Alan Rose of Canberra: "What the hell is wrong with you Yanks, you wouldn't know good taste if it bit you on the butt."
And from Tamryn of USA: "Yes, the boarder (sic) guards do ask about things that are banned, no matter how idiotic it sounds. There is nothing too outragious (sic) that is beyond comprehension for the Amerikan (sic) government."
Nancy Reyes of Gapan City, Philippines and a doctor, gives a medical justification for the ban, claiming excessive folate consumption can mask the signs of dementia. The Australian Embassy in Washington is investigating the reports. By an irony, the manufacturer of Vegemite in Australia is an American firm, Kraft Foods.
Some Americans are unmoved by the furore. What the heck is Vegemite? asks Lindsey of Michigan.
* I said, Do you speak-a my language? He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich
Down Under, 1982, Men At Work.