Is Marmite Vegetarian or Vegan?

From Footnotes

If we're to believe advertising (ha hah hah ha HA! ahem) then Marmite: You either LOVE it or HATE it. Now I don't know about anyone else but I neither love nor hate Marmite. If there's some in the fridge I might put it on some toast or a bagel if I fancy a change, but generally I wouldn't go out of my way to buy the stuff or choose it as a first preference. I don't go 'yum', I don't go 'yuck'. I am ambivalent. So there you go. It may seem slightly petty for me to devote an entire footnote just to point that out but I'm slightly prone (oh yeah only ssslllightly) to feeling resentment over these pointless artificial binaries being inflicted on me (I mean there's enough of those already without advertising making more up).

Anyone who's ever bought a jar of Marmite will notice that the label boasts the spread within is '100% Vegetarian'. Now being charitable I'll assume that this is supposed to mean that Marmite is vegan (I checked, it is) but really vegetarian just means no food that involved killing an animal (whereas vegan is no ingredients that involved the exploitation of an animal in any way). So really the idea of selling something as being 100% vegetarian is slightly stupid, I mean imagine selling something as 99% Vegetarian! But wait, some crisps are sold as being 80% Fat Free (like no one'll notice that 20% fat is actually really quite high) so maybe, considering that some people are pseudo-vegetarian like pescetarian (they eat fish too) or worse (eating chicken!) for health reasons (call it something other than 'vegetarian' please people), it might be possible to sell stuff on being some percentage vegetarian. Like maybe 'McDonalds Big Mac 66% Vegetarian!' ...well you never know.

More Marmite Love & Hate

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My fiancee brought over some Marmite and said that he was pretty sure it was vegan. I checked, it was, and I've been hooked ever since. The only harsh thing about the whole situation is that in the US Marmite is around 10 dollars for a 125g jar. But I digress. I love Marmite. I'm telling my vegan friends about it. Yay Marmite! Jesika NY, USA First time I tried Marmite I found it disgusting. I closed the jar and promptly returned it to the kitchen cupboard. A few months later, reading about all the benefits, I gave Marmite another go. Still found it disgusting, but after a couple of months (of torture), I got hooked. I love it so much now, I even eat it with a spoon. Seriously :) Nathan London Yeah, marmite has high amounts of vitamin B12 in it, which, for vegans, can only be found in either seaweed or fortified non-dairy milks. So it's great to be able to get your daily vitamin B12 requirements from a few sandwiches with this sexy stuff! xjoeyx London is marmite got msg in it c It would be a good idea to make a big thing about marmite being vegan and having high amounts of B12. I have a one year old and we are vegan. Its really hard getting enough b12 in her with it mainly comming from meat and dairy. Well not anymore. She has marmite on toast twice a day and that her b12 sorted. MAKE BIG OF THIS AND IT WILL SELL TO LOADS MORE VEGANS. I personaly cant stand marmite, the smell makes me feel sick but my daugther gets down it and thats the main thing. Shannon Stoke-on-Trent, UK re "call it something other than 'vegetarian' please people" - exactly! i hate all those "i am a vegetarian" statements from people who actually eat dead animals. anyway: curious about the squeezy thing. not available here but will ask english friend to send it my way. jana prague All bow down to the One True Spread. Marmite is the food of the gods. Blinky Girdlesniffer Bristol UK GRR MARMITE IS DELICIOUS!!!!!!!! BE QUIET MARMITE HATER guest UK Marmite ROCKS!! Dont change anything FGS..... vegan UK marmite is a vegans best friend :) vegan australia "Manipulave"? Advertising is always to be ignored anyway. If I listened to advertising I'd be broke! Marmite is excellent stuff. It is quite an aquired taste and I think of it in much the same way as I think of olives, chillis, cheeses and other foods with strong flavours. Its good stuff once you understand it. Spread thinly!!!!! Tomos UK The advertising (including this site) is manipulave bull***t. Marmite is very unpleasant. Brian Danzig