Thread: Marmite made illegal in Denmark

According to the marketing slogan it is a taste that you either love or hate. But Danes will no longer get the chance to make up their own minds on Marmite after the British delicacy was banned under food safety laws.

A jar of Marmite Photo: JEFF GILBERT


The strongly flavoured dark brown spread made from brewer's yeast has joined Rice Crispies, Shreddies, Horlicks and Ovaltine prohibited in Denmark under legislation forbidding the sale of food products with added vitamins as threat to public health.

Many well known breakfast cereal and drink brands have already been banned or taken off supermarket shelves after Danish legislation in 2004 restricted foods fortified with extra vitamins or minerals.

But Marmite had escaped notice as an exotic import for a small number of ex-pats until the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration telephoned Abigail's, a Copenhagen shop selling British food, to ban the famous yeast spread.

"I don't eat it myself, I don't like it but Marmite was one of our best selling products. Not a day goes by without someone coming in and asking for it," said Marianne Ørum, the shop owner.

"All the English people here are shaking their heads in disbelief and say that it is insane. I agree but it is the law. It's becoming impossible to run a business in this country. We are not allowed to do anything anymore. It is the way Denmark is going."

The shop has now started a "Bring back Marmite" campaign to overturn a ban that is seen as discriminating against Britons living and working Denmark.

Lyndsay Jensen, a Yorkshire born graphic designer working in Copenhagen, told the British ex-pat RedHerring.dk website, that Britons would carry on spreading Marmite on their toast, even if it meant smuggling it in to Denmark.
"They don't like it because it's foreign," she said. "But if they want to take my Marmite off me they'll have to wrench it from my cold dead hands."
The sale of any foodstuff with the "addition of vitamins, minerals and other substances" must be first approved by the Danish authorities after a health scare over their effect on children or pregnant women when combined with other foods with high vitamin levels.
A spokesman for the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration said: "I cannot comment on the Marmite case because our expert is away until Thursday."

Marmite made illegal in Denmark - Telegraph

Ah well, on a more posative note :

Marmite takes Manhattan

Marmite and other humble British foods are taking New York by storm.


Brits and the Big Apple: despite their love of swanky restaurants, New Yorkers can't get enough of bubble and squeak, fish and chips, and pedestrian British products like Marmite and HP sauce Photo: JEAN-PIERRE LESOURRET/CORBIS; PA; ALAMY

By Belinda Richardson 7:00AM GMT 19 Feb 2010 28 Comments


For years, British food has been the butt of jokes the world over – and no more so than in Manhattan, despite the thousands of Brits who have colonised the Big Apple and done their best to assert some influence. Now, at last, our culinary expertise is getting the respect it deserves and even famously critical New Yorkers are giving some of our most humble produce the thumbs up.

It's one thing Manhattan sophisticates cultivating an Anglophile nature and daring to eat a crumpet. But Marmite? Piccalilli? PG Tips? Who could have imagined that the smartest restaurants across town would include such pedestrian labels on their menus? Well, they do.

There have always been a handful of hang-outs where one could eat the sort of things Englishmen abroad are supposed to yearn for. Tea & Sympathy, a quaint, slightly yellowing tea room with a wet-afternoon musty snugness to it, has been specialising in humble British classics for years. Likewise, A Salt & Battery is another Manhattan outlet of the British Empire where relentlessly cheery staff spout cockney slang in between delivering orders of (overpriced) fish and chips and mushy peas.

The difference is, if you want to eat the sort of food normally unavailable to the wandering Brit in New York, you no longer have to visit these slightly cheesy joints, or beg to be invited to the Condé Nast cafeteria for beans-on-toast day. It seems that nowadays British food – warts and all – is out there for the taking.

It was Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield who first got the ball rolling when they opened The Spotted Pig and introduced New Yorkers to the whole concept of the gastropub, including real ale and PG tips. "They liked the comfort food thing because dishes were simple and satisfying," Friedman says. "In terms of atmosphere, it's not so different from that appealing and beloved British institution, the neighbourhood pub."

Meanwhile, over at Friedman and Bloomfield's newly opened Breslin restaurant (at the wildly popular Ace Hotel), a meat-heavy menu focusing on head-to-tail dining has been introduced. Pork scratchings are served as an appetiser, as are Scotch eggs. Ham comes with piccalilli. Traditional English bubble and squeak is offered as a side order and Eton Mess (though it has to be said, this one is made with creamy coconut and grapefruit) is Breslin's current best-selling pudding.
"New Yorkers are ready for restaurants that are embracing food with genuine gastro gusto," Friedman says. "Food for people who like to eat, as opposed to accommodating picky eaters."
Best of all, the city that claims to be the breakfast capital of the world seems to have ditched its bagel and smoked fish image, and is at last waking up to the oleaginous joys of the full English breakfast. At Balthazar, a mainstay of downtown hobnobbery and good food, Heinz baked beans on toast and fried bread are now on the menu. The restaurant will also cook you that very rare thing in New York – a soft-boiled egg. And the new (and very chic) Crosby Street Hotel, tucked away from the thrum of downtown Broadway, will do you Marmite soldiers and black pudding with your fry- up. HP sauce is put on the table automatically.
As for the old British classics, you can get warm apple crumble and Welsh rarebit (made in the traditional way with English cheddar, stale beer, Colman's mustard and Worcestershire sauce) down on the lower East side at the retro-chic Schiller's Liquor Bar, and a Sunday roast with Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings at the Minetta Tavern, a combination of Parisian steakhouse and New York City tavern.
You can even get devils on horseback made with Stilton at Freemans. "New Yorkers come to Freemans specially for them," co-owner William Tigertt says. "They are always looking for new types of interesting food and some of the best ideas lately are coming from reinvented classic English dishes. There's a lot of innovative cooking coming out of London now."
Let's hope the newly opened Le Caprice in the Pierre Hotel doesn't stop this surge in British popularity in its tracks, for there are those who accuse this swanky joint of overkill: the art-deco room, the Noël Coward atmosphere, the polished white marble, the posh London maître'd and the crowds of champagne-swilling Englishmen. But so far so good. According to former Ivy chef Michael Hartnell, the punters are loving it.
"Right now there is a real sense of affection for all things British," he says. "New Yorkers seem to enjoy the no-frills, no-nonsense approach to food. Since opening in October, our more traditional dishes have become the most popular. Fish and chips is easily our best-selling dish and our smoked haddock and quail's egg tart is also very well liked."
Maybe we will take Manhattan after all.

Marmite takes Manhattan - Telegraph

Well can we ban Carlsberg then because it's dog piss.

At least if people have to resort to smuggling it in by stuffing it up their arses, then the taste and texture wont be damaged.

^^
Fuck off arry, one of the best lager beer brands in the world, and about time marmite got banned

No on a more serious note, we do not condone vitamins mixed in food used as a sales argument promoting it as healthy, to many vitamins can be just as dangerous as not getting any, if they start spicing up a lot of foodstuffs with artificial high vitamin doses that don't occur in the food naturally, then it becomes next to impossible for parents to control what their kids get. I think it started with Danone yoghurt's and such.

Of-cause you will always have scrupulous business people willing to sell anything to make a buck, poisonous toys from China etc. and moan when they get busted.

When the Brits get enlightened/educated enough to want to loose weight and demand high quality foods, they can tell the marmite producers not to add dangerous and unnecessary vitamins, if that indeed is the case?, then I'm sure they can sell it again in Denmark, until then the die hards will just have to get someone back home to send them some or bring some in the suitcase next time home.

It's not meant as an insult to the Brits you can eat all the crap you want back home, we just don't want all the artificial enhanced low quality crap for human consumption at our place, fair enough really.

Originally Posted by Bangyai

"But if they want to take my Marmite off me they'll have to wrench it from my cold dead hands."

Looks like the UK has it's own version of the NRA.

Originally Posted by Bangyai

New Yorkers seem to enjoy the no-frills, no-nonsense approach to food.

It's sizable and often affluent Jewish population certainly does.

Originally Posted by larvidchr

we just don't want all the artificial enhanced low quality crap for human consumption at our place

Rice Crispies, Shreddies, Horlicks, Mar/Vegemite and Ovaltine? Yet something tells me I can get a Big Mac and fries in Denmark. Or a cheap Bologna. Nobody makes anybody eat at macca's in Denmark and nobody makes them eat such infinitely worse health hazards() as Marmite or shredded wheat either. This is bureacracy at it's worst, a nanny state mentality going out of control if you ask me. Such 'issues' as may apply within Denmark are easily addressed via labelling ( "WARNING- this imported foodstuff contains added Vitamins"). You obviously have too many bureacrats in Denmark- save money and hassle and sack a few.

When your government is banning Ovaltine and Rice Crispies it suggests they have run out of legitimate things to do with your time, and they need to go find a productive job.

Marmite made illegal in Denmark

They can't do that.

He's a bloody mod. Probably.

Being as Marmite is difficult to get here in Thailand I use Maggi's sauce as an alternative. Not the same, but it does for me.

Originally Posted by superman

Being as Marmite is difficult to get here in Thailand I use Maggi's sauce as an alternative.

It's not meant as an insult to the Brits you can eat all the crap you want back home, we just don't want all the artificial enhanced low quality crap for human consumption at our place, fair enough really.

A really lame argument, Larvidchr. I'm afraid I'd rather make the choice what I do and do not want to buy, rather than have some scandihooligan bureaucratic reindeer-fucker try and tell me.

And Carlsberg is dog piss, end of. But it doesn't bother me that there are people out there that fall for their "probably the best lager in the world" bullshit.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

It's not meant as an insult to the Brits you can eat all the crap you want back home, we just don't want all the artificial enhanced low quality crap for human consumption at our place, fair enough really.

A really lame argument, Larvidchr. I'm afraid I'd rather make the choice what I do and do not want to buy, rather than have some scandihooligan bureaucratic reindeer-fucker try and tell me.

And Carlsberg is dog piss, end of. But it doesn't bother me that there are people out there that fall for their "probably the best lager in the world" bullshit.

Not lame at all arry, not all people evidently are sane enough to be left to chose everything on their own, especially some inbred Islanders who through isolation have developed strange habits like, left side driving, fear of water and soap, weird measurements and lukewarm stale liquids being passed of as a type of beer etc .

As far as scandihooligan bureaucratic reindeer fuckers are concerned, just stay the fuck away, problem solved

Originally Posted by larvidchr

fact is that it is usually the already dubious/fattening type products that get vitamins artificially added

I don't know about 'usually', but I do know several foods with silly amounts of sugar added that push the 'vitamin supplement' angle. Added sugar is an infinitely worse health hazard than added vitamins anyway- what has Denmark done about that?

But looking at the list of 'banned substances' from the above article negates your point- those products could in no way be considered unhealthy, except perhaps ovaltine which contains too much added sugar. In particular, marmite & horlicks are particularly nutritious. If you are paying bureacrats to ban the sale of Marmite, in a country that has Big Mac & KFC openly for sale, and thousands of food products with obscene amounts of added sugar, you should definitely either sack them, or spend a wee bit more money and send them to some sort of nutrition school. In the case of products which are actually junk but push the 'added vitamin' angle, I don't have any issue with them being banned (more with them being sold in the first place), but in this case what you are looking at is bureaucratic madness, all paid for by the taxpayer- for what, after all, is perfectly healthy food mainly for the small expatriate community. The legislation was not designed to catch the likes of marmite and shredded wheat.

Originally Posted by larvidchr

Obesity, heart disease, cancer and many other ailments from bad food products/habits is a big economic and social problem in many industrialized Country's,

Sure, including Denmark- but the products just banned by overzealous Danish bureaucrats are, if anything, foods that should be eaten more, to substitute for the more unhealthy foods people scoff that contribute to these ailments. There would be less obesity in Denmark if people had a nice mar/vegemite on wholewheat toast, instead of scoffing themselves at those sausage carts.

Fat fuckers don't eat marmite. FACT.

How many times have we been told something is bad for us ? Only to be told later that new studies show the opposite. Salt being the latest.

Originally Posted by Bangyai

The shop has now started a "Bring back Marmite" campaign to overturn a ban that is seen as discriminating against Britons living and working Denmark.

Booo Fucking Hoooo toffee nosed prats, don't like the rules and regulations of the place you chose to move to move the fuck back home then. .

That's official then. The Danes will have to stick to their shit beer, smoked herring and water injected, 'enhanced' bacon. More fool them.

At least some East Coast Yanks are open to being civilised at last.

Originally Posted by sabang

Originally Posted by larvidchr

fact is that it is usually the already dubious/fattening type products that get vitamins artificially added

I don't know about 'usually', but I do know several foods with silly amounts of sugar added that push the 'vitamin supplement' angle. Added sugar is an infinitely worse health hazard than added vitamins anyway- what has Denmark done about that?

But looking at the list of 'banned substances' from the above article negates your point- those products could in no way be considered unhealthy, except perhaps ovaltine which contains too much added sugar. In particular, marmite & horlicks are particularly nutritious. If you are paying bureacrats to ban the sale of Marmite, in a country that has Big Mac & KFC openly for sale, and thousands of food products with obscene amounts of added sugar, you should definitely either sack them, or spend a wee bit more money and send them to some sort of nutrition school. In the case of products which are actually junk but push the 'added vitamin' angle, I don't have any issue with them being banned (more with them being sold in the first place), but in this case what you are looking at is bureaucratic madness, all paid for by the taxpayer- for what, after all, is perfectly healthy food mainly for the small expatriate community. The legislation was not designed to catch the likes of marmite and shredded wheat.

Originally Posted by larvidchr

Obesity, heart disease, cancer and many other ailments from bad food products/habits is a big economic and social problem in many industrialized Country's,

Sure, including Denmark- but the products just banned by overzealous Danish bureaucrats are, if anything, foods that should be eaten more, to substitute for the more unhealthy foods people scoff that contribute to these ailments. There would be less obesity in Denmark if people had a nice mar/vegemite on wholewheat toast, instead of scoffing themselves at those sausage carts.

It's just not true Sab, Danes are not near as obese as Brits and Americans, obesity is not a special urgent problem on a similar scale now, but we are not going to wait till it becomes such a "huge" problem, and marmite apparently just fall within that bracket of foodstuff that add vitamins artificially, the laws are not made to target special products for expatriates, it's just simply that the law, as it should, goes equally for all.

As I said - in connection with your McDonald and KFC issue (dont know why you focus on those we dont have especially many compared to others), forinstance trans fatty acid's are a main target as is sugar, chocolate etc., regulations on levels, and tax is quite heavily increased on those products all the time (we have a special sugar tax) to make it less attractive for producers as well as consumers to use and buy. At the same time ecological produce is strongly supported in various ways.

And healthy bread don't even go there Sab, rather than the typical sloppy sliced white bread traditional in England, we traditionally eat much more healthy bread-types than most other Countries, dark/brown bread sandwiches is on the table everyday in most Danish families. In Denmark we typically have two cold bread meals a day and just one hot (meat) meal.

Here you go Sab from an Aussie survey on country levels of trans fatty acid allowed at McDonald and KFC.

http://www.google.dk/url?sa=t&source...z86z2Q&cad=rja



"The regulation of TFA content of food or a requirement to label the TFA content of food occurs overseas. Denmark introduced legislation effective from 1 January 2004, restricting the use of TFA to a maximum of 2% of the fat in any food product. An alternative approach has been taken in the USA where the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled that effective 1 January 2006 nutrition labels for all conventional foods and supplements must indicate the content of TFA. The UK Food Standards Agency is currently pressing for revision of the European Directive that regulates nutrition labels on foods for TFA to be labelled (9)."

FIGURE 1. A comparison of the amounts of industrially produced TFAs in fast food from two outlets in various countries, adapted from Stender et al (2). Arrows indicate ranking of fast food purchased in Adelaide.

New York City, USA (23%, 11%) Peru (24%, 9%) Atlanta, USA (19%, 11%) Johannesburg, South Africa (28%, 1%) Glasgow, UK (18%, 13%) Poland (18%, 8%) Aberdeen, UK (15%, 14%) London, UK (16%, 13%) Finland (12%, 7%) Italy (14%, 8%) France (15%, 11%) Norway (12%, 6%) Barcelona, Spain (13%, 9%) Hamburg, Germany (10%, 8%) Sweden (12%, 6%) Adelaide, Australia (9%, 11%) Wiesbaden, Germany (9%, 9%) Hungary (10%, 8%) Austria (12%, 6%) Portugal (10%, 8%) The Netherlands (7%, 6%) Russia (10%, 5%) Czech Republic (11%, 4%) Malaga, Spain (5%, 9%) Denmark (1%, 1%)

McDonald's
0 5 10 15 20 25
Industrially Produced Trans Fatty Acids (g)

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

That's official then. The Danes will have to stick to their shit beer, smoked herring and water injected, 'enhanced' bacon. More fool them.

At least some East Coast Yanks are open to being civilised at last.

Can't you read you are banned

Originally Posted by superman

Being as Marmite is difficult to get here in Thailand I use Maggi's sauce as an alternative. Not the same, but it does for me.

I think it is either Maggi's or Poo Khao Tong ( Golden Mountain ) that was banned in Britain for having MSG levels hundreds of times over the recommended safe level.

Originally Posted by Alvin

When your government is banning Ovaltine and Rice Crispies it suggests they have run out of legitimate things to do with your time, and they need to go find a productive job.

Fair call .

and welcome to TD

Originally Posted by Mid

Originally Posted by Alvin

When your government is banning Ovaltine and Rice Crispies it suggests they have run out of legitimate things to do with your time, and they need to go find a productive job.

Fair call .

and welcome to TD

Not really, just uninformed, but welcome anyway

Denmark bans Rice Krispies-Corn Flakes-Special K


Danish health authorities ban some Kellogg products, saying they could harm children

CHRISTIAN WIENBERG

Associated Press

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Danish health officials said Wednesday they have banned several
vitamin-enriched products of U.S. breakfast cereal maker Kellogg, saying they could be harmful if
eaten regularly.
The 18 products, which include enriched versions of popular brands already on the Danish market like
Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies and Special K, were to be launched in Denmark soon.
"We've turned down applications for a number of enriched products which will have toxic effects in
the doses Kellogg uses," said Paolo Drotsby of the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration.
Drotsby said that if eaten regularly, the products could damage children's livers and kidneys, as
well as the fetuses of pregnant women.
Kellogg said it was puzzled by the rejection, as many of the products are being sold already in
several other European countries.
"We're extremely concerned and mystified, as we never have had such problems with health authorities
before in Kellogg's history," said John Buckles, managing director for Kellogg in the Nordic region.
The 18 products include 12 types of cereal brands and six types of snack or breakfast bars. Buckles
said the European enrichment recipes were slightly different from the ones used in the United
States, although Kellogg's products are fortified there as well and have been since the 1930s.
"Our next step is to work with Danish authorities and see if we can come up with a solution. The
important thing here is for us to work in concert," Buckles said.
Chris Wermann, a spokesman for Kellogg Europe, added: "We will have further discussions with Danish
authorities about the importance of vitamins in cereals."
Meanwhile, Drotsby said Kellogg could apply again if the company removes or reduces the doses of the
vitamins and minerals in question.
The rejection was delivered to Kellogg last month after a government laboratory conducted a
scientific examination of the ingredient lists provided by the company, Drotsby said.

Originally Posted by larvidchr

Fuck off arry, one of the best lager beer brands in the world

Are you Danish, mate??? If so, then you must be a Jutlander because me copious Copenhagen mates wouldn't touch Carlsburg; Tuburg and Tuburg Gold are the way to go...

Originally Posted by larvidchr

Of-cause you will always have scrupulous business people willing to sell anything to make a buck, poisonous toys from China etc.

Marmite is like poisonous toys from China, sold by (un)scrupulous business people... Yeah, okay Larv... You could get a job at the Nation with this kind of logic...

Originally Posted by larvidchr

^^


No on a more serious note, we do not condone vitamins mixed in food used as a sales argument promoting it as healthy, to many vitamins can be just as dangerous as not getting any, if they start spicing up a lot of foodstuffs with artificial high vitamin doses that don't occur in the food naturally,

Unfortunately, you are making the same mistake as your government. While is is (just) possible to overdose on vitamins - it is the fat soluble vitamins that cause the problems when taken in great excess.....problem is, the vitamins in marmite are of the water soluble type, and it is damn near impossible to overdose on those - they just get flushed from the body with no ill effects (unlike the fat soluble ones that get stored in organs like the liver).

Knee jerk reaction based on ill informed science I am afraid.