News.com – October 21, 2006 (Via the Museum of Hoaxes):
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.
If you outlaw Vegemite, only outlaws will eat Vegemite.
Any word on my favorite, Marmite?
Bureaucrats only believe in the piece of paper on their desk. That’s how they think the world works. That’s how they govern.
The cretins in charge of the US made that clear with regulations on food and the purported War on Terror. We’ve had a couple of Xmas holidays when real German stollen cake was barely available because — in order to export, Germans bakeries had to fill out pages of crap assuring the Dept. of Homeland Insecurity they weren’t trying to kill off our population via biohazard attack. Filled out in English only, of course.
Filling out the paperwork correctly means you’re not a terrorist.
“Bureaucrats only believe in the piece of paper on their desk.”
Probably the most insightful thing I’ve read this year.
Moss,
Was it in triplicate? Cause that’s the real benchmark of innocence.
I know it is customary to bash America here and blame George Bush for everything (and this too is no doubt his fault as #2 implies), but remember that sublime and beautiful Canada, that bastion of liberty and privacy, where everything is inherently fair and justice reigns supreme, also for a time banned the import of raw milk cheeses because of “health concerns” (at least in Quebec).
So bureaucrats are not limited to America only.
5,
Yeah, but that ban didn’t last. Common sense won out. I buy only raw milk cheeses, and I’ve never had a problem acquiring it. And don’t dis Canada. We sell your old timer’s their pills.
Explains why I couldn’t find an online store that would have it in stock (or that’s what they said). Any ideas where I can get it now? Or do I need to make a trip up north to get it at pretty much any Canadian supermarket?
And, BTW, Yanks: the US has become an incredibly idiotic country, no matter what you say and how badly you feel about foreighers dissing it. And with that, it has’t advanced enough to be sufficiently corrupt so one get stuff done around the law if needed. Unbelievable!
#4 — as best I recall, it was quintuplicate. That made it two-thirds more important.
#5 — save your whining. The word “bureaucrat” has a specific, historic definition. The fact that US bureaucrats currently lead the industrial world in konnivance, korruption, kronyism can be laid at the feet of 12 years of Republikan kontrol of Washington, DC. You can couple it to Demokrats who range from kandyass to kowardly.
That should be enough “k’s” to satisfy every neo-con onboard, this morning.
Well Proud Alien, I’m Canadian and I agree to a certain extent on the state of affairs in the USA, but Canada isn’t without its problems as well. It gets a little sickening hete sometimes.
Here, here!
@#8
Washington, DK?
(Can it stand for something with a hard-c [Columbia] or does it have to be pronounced with a hard-c? The kommunist-letter-substitutions are so komplikated!
I’ve tasted this stuff exactly one time and if the US has banned it from our shores I will go for the next three days and not bitch about taxes. This is the single nastiest stuff I have ever eaten.
God Bless America.
I’ve tried the stuff, no personal loss for me. 😉
Yawn
What a non story. Does anyone really care about this aside from the US/Bush bashing aspect of it.
Yeah, you’ll only complain when it’s your food that is being banned.
I believe that there is something more sinister here than meets the eye… the addition of Folic Acid to certain foods is good practicable public health and business policy, and the fact that it can and does reduce several illnesses does not go well with a country that has a VERY BIG DRUG BUSINESS made from it’s citizens… what I mean is that the less healthy food the more drugs they can sell, I belive it has been happening since forever and more and more every time. USA is the only country that has more than 15 different drugs to cure a simple hadache, or any other maladie known to man.
OK so bureaucrats ride on the Ignoramus ticket and say it’s a technicality, but read deeper and you’ll find a very big can of worms.
“Does anyone really care about this aside from the US/Bush bashing aspect of it.”
And for the record, the “US/Bush bashing aspect of it” was entirely a joke. I guess some people just can’t get hyperbole and satire.
…the recipe does have the addition of folic acid…
Whaaaa? Why not just say “contains folic acid”?
It’s an outrage that vegemite is banned. Please consider signing my petition at http://www.savevegemite.com and help get our favourite Aussie icon unbanned.
WE ARE NOT HAPPY LITTLE VEGEMITES!!!!
This is ALL OUT TRADE WAR. Bring it On!!!!!
No More Florida Orange Juice, no more … um, what the hell else that the US produce and manufacture????? I don’t think i’ve got anything in my place in Sydney that actually comes from there.
So not concerned.
What’s the loss?
It’s the nastiest thing I’ve ever eaten.
I’m not losing sleep over this one.
Come now people, what does folic acid do? Prevents birth defects (and also helps prevent cancer). It cures the red neck gene.
that is why its banned.
#2– Bureaucrats only believe in the piece of paper on their desk.–moss
SN (#3) is right. This is quotable.
I have images of Col. Jack T. Ripper going barking mad and initiating armageddon, mumbling nonsence about ‘Purity of Essence’.
#8, they only needed three “k”s to make their day.
VEGIES MIGHT take revenge and kill the leader of these leglislators, the largest vegetable of them all, You all know who we mean.
Actually how can i call him a vegetable when he is clearly a meathead. Maybe he is both.
Soon they will ban drinking water if it is suspected to have fallen from the sky and avoided border guards and customs. That rainfall may actually be a terrorist as it could have originally evaporated from lakes or streams and oceans around the middle east. maybe if drinking water had some oil content they could tax it further.
Sorry guys, this appears to be a hoax. Apparently no government site mentions the ban, including American agriculture and FDA, or the Australian tourist.
http://tinyurl.com/ygogta
Spina Bifida is linked to a lack of Folic Acid during pregnancy. In 1993 the FDA suggested the addition of Folic Acid to all grain products. A Vegamite serving contains about 50% of the recommended daily serving of Folic Acid.
http://tinyurl.com/y9po6v
(FDA Proposal)
BTW, this is noted on the Museum of Hoaxes web site. If anyone actually read the link they would be aware already.
Marmite and Vegimite…..now THERE’S a battle of tastes, if there ever was one.
I can’t tell you which one is the worst.
Sorry guys, this appears to be a hoax.
Looks like SNOPES debunked it, as well.
J/P=?