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Australian prisoner asserts human right to Vegemite [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2025-11-19  

Vegemite is a thick brown slime derived from leftover brewers' yeast. Similar to Marmite, and especially popular in Australia, it is famed for the intensity of its flavor and how completely repulsive it is to those yet to acquire the taste. It is banned in prisons in the Australian state of Victoria, and an inmate is challenging the prohibition. His grounds? The ban breaches his human right to enjoy Australian culture.

Andre McKechnie, 54, serving a life sentence for murder, took his battle for the salty, sticky, brown byproduct of brewing beer to the Supreme Court of Victoria, according to documents released to The Associated Press on Tuesday. Most Australians revere Vegemite as an unfairly maligned culinary icon, and more than 80% of Australian households are estimated to have a jar in their pantries. But inmates in all 12 prisons in Victoria are going without.

The reason for the ban is hilarious: drug dogs can't work around it, such is the overwhelming sensory landscape it presents them: "Inmates used to smear packages of illicit drugs with Vegemite in the hope that the odor would distract the dogs from the contraband."

The last U.S. president to visit Australia was Barack Obama, and they fed it to him.

OBAMA: It's horrible.

Previously:

• Join me in celebrating 100 years of Vegemite!

• Literal breadboarding, with toast and Vegemite

• Vegemite's stupid and clueless linking policy

• Listen to the original, slower, better (!) version of Men at Work's 'Down Under'

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/11/19/australian-prisoner-asserts-human-right-to-vegemite.html

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