Brit expats aghast as Denmark bans Marmite Marmite-loving Brit expats living in Denmark have expressed their shock and dismay at the government's decision to ban the legendary yeast-based spread, on the grounds that it contains "too many vitamins". The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration has invoked a 2004 law concerning nosh "fortified with added vitamins". …
Baked beans, an' Polo Mints, an' gingernuts! I even saw Irn Bru once. Intermarché sells jellies around here, all I need for torturing the natives.
Seriously, we need to set up a Black Ops team, smuggling the salty nectar of yeasty yumminess to our beleaguered compatriots in Hamlet-land under cover of Schengen.
Cryptic messages delivered over the radio, WWII style, could alert our contacts to the point of delivery. We shall have to adopt codenames, of course, so that if one of us is caught by a minion of the Danish authorities, they cannot give away the others' names, even under torture (such as being forced to listen to Lars von Triers' 'jokes' for hours en end).
Britons, arise! The very basis of our freedom is being threatened! They will not control us!
When you turn up at the borders of lonely Latvia with this unknown toxic concoction, they know its actually decent because the EU says so. They don't have to ban it first until they carry out their own tests.
Denmark are allowed to then implement their own laws. If they decided to ban it, then were overruled by the EU and had to allow it after all, THEN something would be very wrong.
<quote Yorkshire-born graphic designer Lyndsay Jensen, resident in Copenhagen, reckons the clampdown is less about excess vitamins, and more to do with simple culinary xenophobia. She splendidly thundered: "They don't like it because it's foreign. But if they want to take my Marmite off me, they'll have to wrench it from my cold dead hands." />
I could have sworn I was reading the daily mash for a moment there...
I sometimes browse it when issues like this crop up just to laugh at the hys comments.
Currently the readership is torn between being angry at foreigners or selfishly glad because they don't like it, and obviously everything they don't like shouldn't exist.
Reminds me of the student protests "bloody students, why aren't they out protesting about things /i/ care about".
All these articles appearing together? The singularity! Maybe on Oct 21. When the rapture will again fail to happen (or fail to involve a noticeable number of Xtians).
Next day, DM: "olive-skinned prophet J.C. (age 2016), of no fixed abode but formerly of Nazareth, AGAIN FAILS TO MAKE GOOD".
...on whether they are water soluble vitamins (like vitamin C), or fat soluble ones (like vitamin A). An huge dose of vit C is likely to just give youy diarrhoea (and possibly kidney troubles), whereas a huge dose of vitamin A would make your skin peel off, and cause liver failure, leading to death. As fdar as I am aware, Marmite, being made from the excess yeast from the brewing industry, is high in B vitamins, of thse B3 (Niacin) and B6 are potentially dangerous in high doses. Of course, to get a high enough dose of these to be harmful from Marmite, your salt intake would probably have killed you first.
Some vitamin excesses are excreted or metabolised, some aren't. The ones that aren't can build up to dangerously toxic levels. I think I've read of people dying of chronic massive Vitamin D overdosing. Vitamin A is supplemented as beta-carotene rather than the vitamin, because the body turns carotene into vitamin A as needed, but can't get rid of a surplus of the actual vitamin.
The B vitamins (in Marmite) are excreted. In fact your body can't maintain a stockpile, so Marmite on toast every day is likely a good thing (but watch your salt intake). Tastes nice too!
Danes should be able to buy Marmite by mail order from another EU country. It would be against EU rules to block such imports (as well as totally impractical).
The Danes are being inconsistent. Vitamin C is also known by its E-number. It's commonly added to a huge range of foods as an anti-oxidant preservative (in quite small amounts compared to eating an Orange, let alone a Kiwi fruit, but even so, it is an added vitamin suppplement! )
Too much vitamin A causes osteoporosis, which is a problem in Denmark because of all the herring they eat. I think this is a case of the Danes being ahead of the rest of us, and we'll probably start to see warnings on anything with added vitamins and, indeed, the mega-vitamin quack pills available off the shelf.
Marmite has never been "banned" as such. Under Danish legislation, vitamins on their own or added to other substances qualifies as drugs - not food. Drugs requires licenses to be freely sold, as I am pretty sure they do in the UK. So the basic issue is: When/if you add vitamins to a substance in Denmark it makes it a drug, in the UK not.
I am actually quite happy someone keeps an eye on what snakeoilsalesman sell.
So this is a PR campaign orchestrated by the manufacturers and distributors. You think? No shit Sherlock :)
(Yes, I am a dane living in sick porn producing, Toksvig xporting, Lars von Trier and Hitler supporting Marmite banning Denmark)
... including - yes - some breakfast cereals, but also vegemite, ovaltine, horlicks, certain cough sweets etc. are forbidden in Denmark because the authorities are worried that the food industry will fortify unhealthy products (such as sugary soft drinks or potato crisps/chips) and then sell them as health foods.
In theory it sort of makes sense, if you are a bureaucrat with one eye on the public health budget, but in practice the law hits very wide of the mark. Meanwhie Danes (like the rest of Europe and especially USA) still guzzle thousands of litres of sugary soda, which enjoys plenty of advertising exposure, even on kids' tv - despite regular reports about how harmful it is. Not to mention the unhealthy amounts of pork, and dearth of vegetables, in the typical Danish diet.
The ban applies to sales, and possibly also wholesale import of all fortified foods. Possession and importation for personal use is not covered by this particular law. The same ban was introduced in Norway some years ago, but now it is legal to sell Marmite again there as long as it is sold as a vitamin supplement, rather than a foodstuff.
I live in Denmark, I love marmite and I think this law is utterly stupid. Don't get me started on the stupid Danish restrictions on over-the-counter medications.
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50% of ex-pats are up in arms. The other 50% vigorously applaud the move, and you know it.
As for having to "wrench it from [her] cold dead hands", this could be quite a challenge if it's been removed from the jar, right enough.
Black market? Very dark brown market, shurely...
I don't quite believe this by-product of beer story. Marmite bears an uncomfortable resemblance to dog's earwax. Stick your finger in a (cooperative) dog's ear and try it. It's only that I'm not sure there are enough dogs having their ears scraped to account for all those jars in the shops. Maybe it's a second career for redundant foxhounds or something.
to anyone in denmark: i can poo in a jar and send you it. it might not smell as bad as marmite but it will taste similar :)
ive never understood how people can eat it. it smells worse than my dog's poo! who was the nutter who first thought 'ohh this smells terrible and looks like poo, wonder how it tastes?'
Eating it since I was "knee-high to a grasshoppers eye", aged 40 and still eating it!
My Missus loves it and so do my kids, it's called "black-butter" in our house.
We even cook with it! Pasta, sausages, mince, tomatoes, pasta sauce, topped off with cheese and the miracle "black-butter" warmed and drizzled over the mixture and then baked for 40 mins. Add chilli flakes before eating, out of this f**king world!
Please. I'm not British, nor do I like marmite, but for sanity's sake, please force these people to stick to speaking English instead of doing their Swedish Chef impression. That'll also allow us to get rid of these damn Danish keyboards that are hell for coders. Heck, there's only 6 million people living here, and other than them and a few Polar Bears (Which Al Gore assured us are doomed anyway), bloody nobody knows or wants to know Danish.
I only started eating Marmite for the B12, which is supposed to be rare in a vegan diet. This news prompted me to pop round to Jim Sainsbury's emporium, where I bought a Marmite 'XO' (extra old). While I was at it, I got Branston, Colemans mustard, and hot pepper sauce, just in case of a shortage. I bet dogs would eat it.
High-speed marmite deliveries using tornados and typhoons, sneaking under the radar and precision-dropping the jars onto (the correct) danish tables.
Hmm - if they were using buccaneers I could believe that, but the modern stuff needs to keep too high to do much sneaking.
ttfn
...I never understood the 'hate marmite' thing. If you don't like it, don't eat it.
There are a number of foodstuffs I'm not particularly fond of. Do you know what I do about it? That's right - I don't eat them.
Personally, I like the taste of marmite, but then I also like the taste of other yeast products, like beer, and I've yet to find anything else that makes an adequate gravy seasoning / colourant.
Is the ban restricted to the sale of the product, or does it also cover importation? If the former, go for it, if the latter, you might be entering something of a customs lottery.
We're OK for Marmite (in the USA) but we can't get Bovril. Found a few e-tailers offering to ship it from the UK, so got in touch with them and asked what the deal was with it making it through customs. The answer was, they'll guarantee to ship it, but they make no guarantee that customs will allow it into the country.
In a free market, especially one that encompasses a Community of European Economies.
Bonus anti-Danissssh anecdote
My father (being of rural origins) while in Denmark asked a farmer what breed of pigs he kept - the farmer was not able to answer.
By comparison, my cousin keeps older breeds of pigs and the bacon is great - doesn't shrink under the grill, or exude white gloop while frying.
Most modern production food has extremely poor vitamin and mineral content, it's stupid to ban food because there's too many added vitamins! If I didn't know better I would suspect it's all lobbying by Pharma groups so they can sell more drugs to people who are vitamin deficient rather than really sick.... Oh, wait!
Where to start:
2004: Law introduced banning sale of foodstuf fortified with vitamins etc unless manufacturer or importer gets approval from health authorities (which most products get...)
2011: Importer "discovers" hey we dont have the approval, and stops importing/selling product.
2011: Expats discover no more Marmite in shop.
Who to blame.
Goverment!
add "Journalists" and ignorance
Voila
THE DAILY FAIL
"Neither Marmite nor Vegemite and similar products have been banned by the Danish Food And Veterinary Administration. However, fortified foods with added vitamins, minerals or other substances can not be marketed in Denmark unless approved by Danish food authorities."
from the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration http://tinyurl.com/3rqr3jd
I have just mailed a copy of my book, The Mish-Mash Dictionary of Marmite: an anecdotal A-Z of 'Tar-in-Jar' to the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration. Under no illusion it will change minds - but they'll get an entertaining read, as they discover that Marmite is not 'fortified'. Well just one of the vitamins (B-12) is added. The other four Vitamin Bs are found naturally in yeast-extract, ie the waste sludge from the brewing industry. Which begs the question: why, as a great brewing nation, has Denmark not produced its own version of the Mighty-M?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mish-mash-Dictionary-Marmite-Tar-jar/dp/0956368603/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306342252&sr=1-1
Yes, another expat who has for years been denied his vegemite on toast for years in the godforsaken hole of a country. The annual pilgrimage downunder is a necessary expense for this reason alone. Sad really, because the quality of Danish bread and butter to go with it is not too shabby. But I digress.
Danes are strange people, and this country is getting stranger - if that can be conceivably possible.
The Danes are heading for a national election within the next few months, and a few weeks ago, the socialst alliance of the Social Democrats and the Socialist Peoples Party proferred their grand master plan for when they come to power (or maybe it was just part of the plan). In any case, it was a list of about 117 things that they were going to ban. I cannot recall what was on the list really, au pairs, solarium use for juveniles and all sorts of other things that right thinking left wing dingbats think should be banned.
What struck me though, was not the content of the list, but the fact that this list exists and was highly publicised.
I ask you, would you vote for a political party so devoid of intellect and creative thinking that it is only able to define itself in terms of items that it wants to ban? I certainly wouldn't, but the Danes probably will.
Apparently I am the only sentient being in the country to have had this thought. Time to leave this place soon methinks.
Dweeb
When Princess Mary returns from visiting mum in Tasmania do the customs officials search her bags for illicit Vegemite?
Does Mary feed Vegemite to the Crown Prince? Will the little princes and princesses grow up eating illegal toast spread?
Perhaps Vegemite can be un-banned by Royal decree and Marmite can come along for the ride.
My book - The Mish-Mash Dictionary of Marmite - is en-route to the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration. Not expecting it to change minds - but will provide an entertaining read! And they will discover that only one of the vitamins (B-12) is added. The other four V-Bs are found naturally in yeast-extract (ie the waste sludge from the brewing industry). Which begs the question: why, as a great brewing nation, has Denmark not produced its own version of the Mighty-M? www.mish-mash-marmite.blogspot.com
OK, that needs explanation.
There is a common belief that Marmite makes you less attractive to insects - like midges, mosquitos, biting flies. (I believe the effect is supposed to be from eating marmite rather than smearing it on ones skin.)
As someone who seems to be particularly favoured by the attentions of said beasties, I found that the "active ingredient" of Marmite believed to have this deterrent effect is vitamin B1 (Thiamine).
While not averse to Marmite my consumption is not regular and so, prior to my visit to Myvatn in Iceland (the name means "lake of the midges") last summer, I took 100mg B1 tablets for a few days. As a result I was made aware that my skin smelt a little different, as it does after eating garlic but not as unpleasant as the post-garlic smell. BTW - being volcanically active most of Iceland (the country, I remain silent in respect of the frozen food retailer) smells of farts. (RDA for B1 is 1.4mg but toxicity is low - water soluble so you just pee out excess).
I was completely untroubled by midges - but neither was anyone else in the group so either the effect was protective of not just me but everyone within 100 yards or the midges were taking a few days off (probably holidaying in Scotland).
So I may have answered my own question (assuming Danes can buy 100mg B1 tablets).
BTW although I am an occasional marmite consumer I just tried "Marmite Cereal Bars" FAIL!
I had a bit of a wobbly in a Tesco Metro in Plymouth City centre last year as the ONLY bacon I could get was bleedy Danish! Not that Plymouth is in the middle of the country surrounded by loads of farms producing Bacon. Anyway a few months after Tesco's finest British bacon was back!
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