Apparently the bureaucratic reach of Danish food nannies now extends as far as Port Hope, Ontario. I dropped in to the British Pantry to stock up on my usual assortment of pickled onions, crisps, toffees, and floral gums, to discover that not only did they not have any Marmite, they couldn’t get any more. This is serious . . . food DefCon Three level serious.
A quick interrogation of the sales person revealed that this is due to some strong disinformation activity on the part of the anti-Marmite faction: “Oh, we can’t bring that in anymore because it’s got beef extract in it. We’re not allowed to import that without a beef importing permit.”
My (sadly) empty jar of Marmite proclaims on the front that it’s 100% Vegetarian:
100% Vegetarian
Ingredients: Yeast Extract
Salt
Vegetable Extract
Niacin
Thiamin
Spice Extracts (contains Celery)
Riboflavin
Folic Acid
Vitamin B12
Apple called. They want their iPhone back. Your photos are making them look bad.
And now, back to a comment actually related to your post: perhaps the sales wonk is thinking of OXO.
Comment by Lickmuffin — June 6, 2011 @ 09:05
Actually, upon further reflection (and googling), I suspect that the sales wonk is thinking of Bovril.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovril
Comment by Lickmuffin — June 6, 2011 @ 09:10
Yeah, the photos are particularly bad. I was trying the latest version of the WordPress iPhone app: it allows you to take a photo and post it directly to the blog.
Comment by Nicholas — June 6, 2011 @ 10:01
You’re probably right, as they did have the Australian concoction Vegemite in stock.
Comment by Nicholas — June 6, 2011 @ 10:02