• Contact
• About
• Archives
• Home

The Herald Sun - Sunday (link found again!) exclaimed in a story today that Vegemite has been banned in the USA. Not only banned - but people are being asked if they have any when they enter the country.

Kraft spokeswoman Joanna Scott in this article states:

“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.’’

Sounds straightforward right? Except when you start to dig around.

First off there is no mention of this ban on any of the US government sites.

The Animal and Plant Health inspection Service (APHIS) - nothing.

US Customs and Protection - nothing.

US Transportation Security Administration - nothing.

Now the US Food and Drug Administration - here is where it gets interesting. There is only one reference to the banning of Vegemite and it states that it is only banning of import of it from the U.K.

United Kingdom 084-1013637-1 47 1
Nisa International
Grimsby , GB NYK-DO
25HCT99 KRAFT VEGEMITE SANDWICH SPREAD, DOES NOT REQUIRE FCE/SID
19-JAN-2006

Reason: NO PROCESS
Section: 402(a)(4), 801(a)(3); ADULTERATION
Charge: It appears that the manufacturer has not filed
information on its scheduled process as required by 21 CFR
108.25(c)(2) or 108.35(c)(2).

Which does not say anything about it being banned for containing folic acid at all.

Interestingly enough a Google search for Joanna Scott + Kraft shows that she is a spokesman of Kraft - in the UK.

Vegemite is manufactured in Australia and New Zealand. You would think the author of the article Kelvin Healey might have thought about calling a spokesperson in one of those countries - not the one in which exporting was banned because some forms have not been filled out.

Also the only news articles about this banning that have appeared are all derivatives of the same article written by Kelvin Healey.

In the Herald Sun article linked above we have the following quote:

Paul Watkins, who owns a store called About Australia in San Antonio, Texas, said he had been forced to stop importing Vegemite six months ago.

Mr Watkins said some companies were flouting the law by continuing to import Vegemite and hoping the shipments would not be inspected.

Interestingly enough if you go to the About Australia Vegemite Page it states nothing about this ban, nothing about them being unable to supply it, and in fact they still list it as being available to purchase in their online store.

Ben Peek raises suspicions on his blog about this ban, and his experience with trying to order Vegemite.

The news articles cite one guy who got stopped at customs and was asked whether he was carrying Vegemite. Now you would think this singling out of Australians and having their Vegemite confiscated (because I’m sure the Customs guys are not asking everyone who comes through if they happen to be carrying Vegemite - only those with Australian Passports) would be ALL OVER the web. But guess what?

Hardly a blip.

In an interesting twist Shane at Eyestrain Productions talks about a Vegemite confiscation - but it was related to all liquids and gels being banned at that time - not because it was Vegemite in particular.

Considering also that has it would cause inconvenience to Australians travelling to the States it seems remarkable that the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on their smart traveller site mentions nothing about Vegemite at all.

So is someone just playing silly buggers?

Risking my personal health by taking in this illegal substance.

If this is true, then let’s have a lookie at possibly why.

From (US) Center for Food safety and applied nutrition:

Folic acid (folacin) - NUTR, REG, May be added to foods subject to a standard of identity when standard of identity provides for addition of folic acid. May be added 400 µg per serving to breakfast cereals, to infant formula 4 µg per 100 kcal of infant formula, 1 mg/1 lb. of corn grits, to foods represented as meal-replacement products 400 µg/serving if the food is a meal-replacement that is represented for use once/day or 200 µg/serving if the food is a meal-replace-ment that is represented for use more than once/day. May be added to medical food at levels not to exceed the amount necessary to meet the distinctive nutritional requirements of the disease or condition for which the food is formulated, and for food for special dietary use not to exceed the amount necessary to meet the special dietary needs for which the food is formulated - 172.345.

On the Vegemite site:

Folate 100 µg (50% RDI)** (5g) 2000 µg(100g)

The presence of Folate is due to the yeast in Vegemite. Vegemite at its most basic is a concentrated yeast extract.

Is the alleged ban on a technicality due to the classification of Vegemite as a food? Because folic acid is actually added to bread and cereals in the States. The FDA in 1993 made this proposal.

Extract:

The Food and Drug Administration today proposed that folic acid, a B-vitamin, be added to flour, breads and other grain products to lower the risk of neural tube birth defects.

I think here at this point we have run into the surreal. (Although that is not uncommon when it comes to dealing with Government agencies).

What is the real story?

Update: The original article on the Herald Sun site has been removed*. The article on the news.co.au site is still accessible - but does not appear on searches, or in the listing of articles published yesterday. News.com.au have published 90 comments on this article - but interestingly enough not mine is which I mentioned some of the facts mentioned above.

* was found again! Thanks Blick_TX.

• this is so intriguing.. and weird! I thought twice about having my vegemite toast after first hearing that news, assuming there must be a good reason for the ban. But I won’t be thinking twice anymore.

  Anne
  06/10/23 12:10 PM

• Protection for the market of locally produced breakfast spread?  Well they stole the name Skippy for Peanut butter - goodness knows what those sepos are trying to do with our vegemite - it isn’t even an Australian owned company anymore…

  The Goddess
  06/10/23 02:13 PM

• I wonder if the superiour tasting, British equivalent, Marmite is also banned…

  Stuart Woodward
  06/10/23 05:06 PM

• I thought these reports were suss as well and I did a little poking around but didn’t come up with anything more than you’ve found. However the Herald Sun’s follow-up article screams of a beat-up http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20629184-661,00.html

  Helen
  06/10/23 11:19 PM

• Oh thanks for the link Helen.

  This just gets more warped - regardless of what people think of him, Bush is still the President of the United States and has a lot more on his plate to worry about than whether Vegemite gets banned there or not....

  MJ
  06/10/23 11:40 PM

• http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,20623197-661,00.html

  Still there—10:27 23Oct06

  Blick_TX
  06/10/24 12:28 AM

• MJ, yeah…

  Dubya has to deal with killer pretzels…

  Pete
  06/10/24 03:10 AM

• I had a hunch this would turn out to be a hoax. Thanks for doing some research.

  elizabeth
  06/10/24 03:15 AM

• Help save vegemite for us Aussie expats. Sign the petition:
  http://www.savevegemite.com

  James
  06/10/24 07:25 AM

• It’s a shame that americans wont know what there missing out on, the more for us i say. Pregnant women need folate so what does the american government ban the use of something that could potentially be a benifical substance for pregnant women. Folate decreased birth defects, it’s very illogial to ban Vegimate.

  John F
  06/10/24 11:26 AM

• Oh good grief online petitions. Yeah they are really effective. About effective as sending an email linked from the follow up stories to some bogus email address which Bush will never see.

  MJ
  06/10/24 12:42 PM

• This has to be an elaborate hoax, because the US government wouldn’t care, and the ‘reporting’ being done by the Herald Sun reads like it was written by children.

  Alix
  06/10/24 02:03 PM

• This is becoming the stuff of urban myths now. Today a family member told me that she’d heard from someone locally (in Australia) via someone else that vegemite was being banned completely. I wonder how many Aussie supermarkets are now seeing a rush on vegemite sales as a result of this new variant on the story? Hoorah for responsible journalism keeping the public informed… not!

  Helen
  06/10/24 02:33 PM

• Oh dear. In fact it has crossed my mind that this is some kind of warped advertising....

  Remember this story came from one person - it just looks like several reports because of the way news.com.au handles the site affiliations.

  MJ
  06/10/24 02:47 PM

• When the news.com.au article was first posted I sent them a comment outlining very similar issues that you mention here.  Funnily enough while they were very happy to publish comments that related to how terrible Americans are, what an outrage etc etc they chose not to add the facts!  Never let the truth get in the way of a good story :(

  Deb
  06/10/24 02:48 PM

• Tell it sister!

  Actually that aspect was what prompted me to actually find out more about the “banning”.

  MJ
  06/10/24 02:53 PM

• We are safe.  It looks like the original story is just bad reporting.

  First of all, Vegemite will be confiscated (if they see it) if it is in your carry on baggage in a plane.  Under the current airline security arrangements in the US there are restrictions on the liquids and gels allowed in the cabin.  There are no restrictions on liquids in your checked luggage.

  As for the FDA banning of it, my wife (who was very concerned about having to smuggle the stuff in), asked the FDA, and they had this to say…

  There is no FDA prohibition of imports of the Vegemite product.  However, earlier this year, FDA did refuse entry to a handful of Vegemite shipments offered for import from Great Britain.  The refusals were based on three issues:  labeling problems (lack of ingredient list), suspected presence of a color additive not approved for use in food in the United States, and lack of registration of facilities and filing of processes for a low-acid canned food.  You can view FDA’s import refusal reports for Vegemite by going on the FDA website (http://www.fda.gov/) and typing in the word “vegemite” in the search window located in the upper left of the webpage.  The clickable citations will then appear.  You can search each page for the word “vegemite” to quickly locate the specific reports.  The violations found for each shipment are listed and underlined in the right-most column of the refusal report.  You can click on these violation terms to bring up a page with fuller explanations.

  I am not sure why Kelvin Healey from the Herald Sun couldn’t have emailed them before, seems it was a little too much reporting to do.

  MJ- good work on your research though.

  Pat
  06/10/24 11:28 PM

• Thanks Pat! Great info there.

  MJ
  06/10/24 11:38 PM

• Thanks Pat

  .....now there’s just the matter of the mighty Phar Lap.....

  Pete
  06/10/25 12:19 AM

• No ban on vegemite and never was one according to the FDA. The Aussies can stand down now.

  http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20641599-1702,00.html

  dw
  06/10/25 05:46 AM

• Thanks dw!

  MJ
  06/10/25 11:25 AM

• I don’t think this is quite over yet. There are a few other instances on the FDA website of refusals of entry of Vegemite to the US.

  They seem to involve not all of the ingredients being disclosed to a detailed enough degree.

  Yet the FDA seems to be ignoring/denying there are any problems.

  Still confused.

  tequilatamm
  06/10/25 07:12 PM

• Getting sick of all the half-truths and hearsay, I fired off an email to Kraft.

  Dear Steven,

  Thank you for contacting Kraft Foods via our website feedback form.

  Kraft actually stopped exporting Vegemite to the USA about 12 months ago
  after the US FDA ruled that Vegemite’s folate fortification was not allowed
  under US regulations, which stipulates folate fortification only in certain
  kinds of foods (which did not include spreads like Vegemite).  However, US
  consumers may still purchase Vegemite from a number of online US-based
  retailers and I have checked these websites today & they stock various sizes
  of Vegemite.
  
  Australian Catalogue Company http://www.aussiecatalog.com
  Aussie Products http://www.aussieproducts.com
  Everything Australian http://www.everythingaustralian.com/ausfood.html

  I hope this explains to you why normal Vegemite supplies can no longer be
  found on supermarket shelves in the USA.  While we appreciate that our
  decision to end exports to the US has disappointed a number of our loyal
  consumers and expatriates in the US, the good news is that consumers may
  still obtain Vegemite through the online sales links given above.
  
  We thank you for visiting our website and if you require any further
  assistance concerning this issue please do not hesitate to contact our
  Consumer Advisory Service via email at .

  Kind regards
  Deanne Pownall
  Kraft Foods Limited
  Consumer Advisory Team

  Steven
  06/10/27 12:24 PM

• Whoah Steven.

  But still that makes no sense. Who is exporting to the US if Kraft is not? The bloody Vegemite Fairy?

  MJ
  06/10/27 12:37 PM

• There are also several more recent refusals listed at fda.gov if you search on Marmite (a similarly tasteful/disgusting product). This is not restricted to Vegemite. However, nothing on Promite. There is a “fascinating” history of this entire issue at the link below. It’s a classic case of “some is good, too much is bad”, and a bunch of bureaucrats trying to determine how much to put in what foods to make sure we’re all adequately folated. I suspect this is the source of the entire issue.

  http://www.fda.gov/oc/history/makinghistory/folicacid.html
  “Under the proposal, if a food product contains more than 25% of the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) for folic acid, it would be required to
  state that 1 mg. folate is the established safe upper limit of consumption”

  kmb
  06/10/29 01:02 AM

• Marmite is available in Canada so probably is not banned in the US either.
  Bummer though the guy in the supermarket said vegemite is banned in canada too!

  Bervo
  06/10/31 01:39 AM

• I contacted all 3 companies listed by Kraft in my email there, only one has bothered to reply…

  We have not been contacted by the FDA stating that we could not sell vegemite. We actually have a shipment of vegemite arriving from Australia this week. According to the latest reports that we have the ban on vegemite is just a rumor. We will know for sure if there is a ban or not this week because we will not be able to receive our shipment if there is.
  
  
  Thank you & Kind Regards,
  
  Jessica Norris
  Customer Service Rep.
  146 Riverview Park Rd
  Jackson, GA 30233
  
  Tel. 770-775-2244
  Fax 770-775-6655
  
  http://www.aussiecatalog.com

  I’ve since made them aware of Kraft’s reply to me, and noted that Kraft didn’t actually specify if they were “forced” by the FDA to stop selling it (or if they did so as a pre-emptive measure).

  Steven
  06/11/05 01:53 PM

• Hi Peter,

  Thank you for visiting http://www.kraftfoods.com/.

  There is no US Government ban on VEGEMITE per se.  VEGEMITE is fortified with folate. The US FDA regulates foods fortified with folate.  FDA has established proper levels of folate that must be included in “enriched” foods, but only allows folate to be added to grains and cereals.

  Kraft independently decided not to export VEGEMITE to the US because the recipe contains added folate.  The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have not taken actions to stop the import of Vegemite into the United States.

  Regulatory authorities in Australia and the US have confirmed that there are no custom restrictions directed at travellers who may wish to take jars of Vegemite to the US for personal consumption.

  If you haven’t done so already, please add our site to your favorites and visit us again soon!

  Kim McMiller
  Associate Director, Consumer Relations

  ---------------------

  So Kraft is officially not importing Vegemite. Personally I’m very disappointed. I native of California, but I’ve come to love Vegemite in the morning. Very very sad.

  peter
  06/12/06 07:21 AM