Australian prisoner sues for his ‘human right’ to eat Vegemite

A prisoner is challenging an Australian state's ban on inmates eating Vegemite, claiming in a lawsuit that withholding the polarizing yeast-based spread breaches his human right to "enjoy his culture as an Australian." Andre McKechnie, 54, serving a life sentence, 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. 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. McKechnie is suing Victoria's Department of Justice and Community Safety and the agency that manages the prisons, Corrections Victoria. The case is scheduled for trial next year. Vegemite has been banned from Victorian prisons since 2006, with Corrections Victoria saying it "interferes with narcotic detection dogs." Vegemite also contains yeast, which is banned from Victorian prisons because of its "potential to be used in the production of alcohol," the contraband list says. A decade ago, Vegemite's then-U.S. owner, Mondelez International, rejected media reports that remote Australian Indigenous communities were using Vegemite to brew alcohol in bathtubs. Mondelez said in a statement that the manufacturing process killed the yeast and that "Vegemite cannot be fermented into alcohol." McKechnie is seeking a court declaration that the defendants denied him his right under the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act to "enjoy his culture as an Australian." He also wants a declaration that the defendants breached the Corrections Act by "failing to provide food adequate to maintain" McKechnie's "well-being." Manufactured in Australia since 1923 as an alternative to Britain's Marmite, Vegemite was long marketed as a source of vitamin B for growing children. The spread is beloved by a majority of Australians, but typically considered an acquired taste at best by those who weren't raised on it. This article was provided by The Associated Press.