Prisoner loses challenge against Vegemite ban in Australia
A prisoner lost his challenge Monday to an Australian state’s ban on inmates eating Vegemite after he argued in court that withholding the polarizing yeast-based spread breached his human right to “enjoy his culture as an Australian,” reports BritPanorama.
Andre McKechnie, 55, who is serving a life sentence for murder, took his battle for the salty, sticky, black-brown byproduct of brewing beer to the Supreme Court of the state of Victoria last year.
He claimed that being refused Vegemite denied him his rights under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act to “enjoy his culture as an Australian in the community with other persons of Australian background,” according to court documents.
Justice Claire Harris acknowledged that prison authorities’ refusal to allow McKechnie Vegemite “limited his cultural rights” under the charter.
However, she determined that the ban was justified in meeting authorities’ goals of removing illicit drugs and alcohol from the prison system.
“The limitation on Mr. McKechnie’s ability to enjoy Vegemite in community with other persons of Australian background is primarily that he is a prisoner,” Harris stated in her 47-page judgment.
Prison officials testified at a trial in July that Vegemite has been banned throughout the state’s 12 prisons for the past 20 years because it could potentially impair sniffer dogs’ ability to detect narcotics and could be used to brew alcohol due to its yeast content.
McKechnie, who represented himself in court via video link from maximum-security Barwon Prison west of Melbourne, contended that the absence of a Vegemite ban in neighboring New South Wales indicated that there were “less restrictive means reasonably available” to achieve desired drug and alcohol outcomes.
In Australia, Vegemite is widely regarded as a culinary icon, with more than 80% of households estimated to possess a jar in their pantries. While many Australians love it, people unfamiliar with it often find it an acquired taste.
Former U.S. president Barack Obama has even remarked on the spread: “It’s horrible.”
McKechnie initially testified that the absence of Vegemite contributed to his thiamine deficiency, noting that both Vegemite and pork serve as sources of this vitamin, which is vital for health. As an observant Jew, he stated he couldn’t eat pork either and relied on vitamin supplements.
Vegemite is marketed as a source of B vitamins, including thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), and folate (B9), which are regarded as healthy additions to the diets of growing children.
However, McKechnie later abandoned the thiamine argument as “not important” after prison authorities’ lawyers objected to his evidence.
He expressed that not consuming Vegemite made him feel “deprived of being able to practice my Australian culture, sad and disconnected from my family and community.”
The judge responded, stating, “It is difficult to accept that the inability to consume Vegemite, rather than the fact of his imprisonment, is a material cause of his sadness and disconnection from his family and community.”
McKechnie referenced a 2003 article in the food studies journal Gastronomica, asserting, “Vegemite may be the best predictor of national identity of any food in the world.” This conclusion was based on research from Queensland University in 1995, which suggested that a “taste for the spread strongly correlates with early exposure and to Australian birth and ancestry.”
He also mentioned the Australian Olympic Committee’s decision to lift a Chinese import ban on Vegemite prior to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and referred to the Australian band Men at Work’s 1980s song “Down Under,” which mentions a “Vegemite sandwich.”
On the use of Vegemite to mask contraband, McKechnie pointed to a 2017 newspaper article discussing an unsuccessful attempt by an individual to conceal illicit drugs with the spread at a music festival in Victoria, thwarted by police sniffer dogs.
The judge upheld prison authorities’ assertion that McKechnie failed to support his claim that Vegemite does not interfere with drug detection.
He argued further that Vegemite contained “no live yeast” and contended that any fruit was more effective in producing alcohol than the spread.
Kevin White, a state prison department manager, cited research indicating that Vegemite could help fermentation in home-brewed beer.
Bega Group, the owner of Vegemite, did not respond to a request for comment.
