Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/95079
historyfocus VEGEMITE IS INSTANTLY RECOGNISABLE AROUND THE WORLD, BUT HOW MANY AUSTRALIANS KNOW THE NAME OF ITS INVENTOR, CYRIL PERCY CALLISTER? CHELSEA ANSTEE INVESTIGATES THE ORIGIN OF OUR NATIONAL SPREAD. When hosting international guests, we take great delight in gauging their reaction to Vegemite. "We don't really care if they like it or not, though," says Jamie Callister, the grandson of the man who invented Vegemite. Prime Minister Julia Gillard laughed knowingly when US President Obama said Vegemite is "horrible". Australians who have been raised on the dark-brown paste since infancy know that Vegemite is not an acquired taste. So where did that distinctive flavour come from? Every year, 23 million jars of Vegemite are produced in Kraft's Melbourne factory. That's thanks to food technologist Cyril Percy Callister, who, 90 years ago, was handed a brief from his boss, Fred Walker: "Develop a spread from the used yeast being dumped by breweries." It was a great idea at a time when refrigeration was a luxury at best. After the product's release as 'Pure Vegetable Extract' in 1923, Fred decided the little black jar needed some TLC by way of branding. He ran a naming competition with £50 prize money, and his daughter, Sheila, selected the winning name: Vegemite. Six years after its release, sales of Vegemite in Australia were slow compared with those of its British counterpart, so its name was temporarily changed to 'Parwill', a play on words: "If Marmite, then Parwill." The marketing measures still weren't working, so shortly after Fred's company, Kraft Walker 68 Foods, gained rights to the patent to produce processed cheese in Australia, redemption coupons for free jars of Vegemite were included with each packet, which boosted sales. Kraft relied on Vegemite's significant vitamin B content as the linchpin for its success. In 1937, Vegemite gained product endorsement from the British Medical Association, which allowed it to be advertised in the British Medical Journal. Vegemite, it was said, could assist with sleep, fatigue and diarrhoea. In fact, during World World II the armed forces bought Vegemite in bulk because of its nutritional value, compelling Kraft Walker Foods to ration the spread on a per capita basis across Australia to meet the demand. In postwar Australia, Vegemite could be found in nine out of 10 homes and parents were urged by the 'Happy Little Vegemites' television advertisement of 1956 to "Be sure you put Vegemite next to the "Cyril Percy Callister ... was handed a brief from his boss, Fred Walker: 'Develop a spread from the used yeast being dumped by breweries.'"