Saturday, October 28, 2006

Vegemite: US bans Australian culinary menace

There's not enough praise that can be given about this courageous US government action to restrict the uncontrolled proliferation of Vegemite. Vegemite, as you all know, is genuinely dangerous stuff. Its bloody legacy of victims in Australia is well documented. Vegemite, when combined with toast, is well known to chemically transform into a very powerful explosive undetectable to bomb sniffers. Of course, this makes Vegemite the ideal terrorist weapon.

Sunday Mail
THE United States has slapped a ban on Vegemite, outraging Australian expatriates there.
The bizarre crackdown was prompted because Vegemite contains folate, which in the US can be added only to breads and cereals...

...Former Geelong man Daniel Fogarty, who now lives in Calgary, Canada, said he was stunned when searched while crossing the US border recently.

"The border guard asked us if we were carrying any Vegemite," Mr Fogarty said...

I thank Ace commenter mesablue for alerting me to this prompt, prudent, and responsible US government action.

2 comments:

beakerkin said...

Tell me its not so

Anonymous said...

Stupid.

Consider that folate (folic acid) is an essential B-vitamin. The only reason for concern is that too much folate can mask the effects of a very uncommon form of anemia called pernicious anemia. Pernicious anemia occurs in people who cannot properly metabolize another vitamin, vitamin B12 (cobalamin). Of course, anybody can purchase multivitamins that have folic acid, meaning the rule is inconsistent.

This would be equivalent to the government banning the sale or importation of foods supplemented with aspartame because aspartame contains phenylalanine, which can be dangerous to people who have phenylketonuria.