A village Vegemite mystery.

[Lacessit]

I use tubes of Vegemite in my GF's village. The reason I do this is because an opened jar of Vegemite develops a white mould on the contents. I have never seen this before, not in Australia, not in the condo I used to occupy in Chiang Mai, not in my condo in Chiang Rai. My GF's village is 25 km from Chiang Rai.

Vegemite according to the food labelling is 8.4% salt, so a mould that can tolerate that kind of salt content must be something special.

Has anybody else living outside the cities seen this? Marmite users are welcome to contribute if they have experienced a similar phenomenon. Comparison of the two products, that's been done to death.

I'm just thinking a mould like this might be producing a new antibiotic, or a suite of organic compounds that could be useful. The biochemists may find it interesting.

[Andrew Dwyer]

I brought some Vegemite back from the U.K. ages ago as my gf liked it .

 

Due to your post I took a look in the cupboard and there it was , mould free :

 

 

 

It has had plenty of time to develop mould but chose not to :

 

 

Expired July 2018 !!

[uncleP]

Vegemite say that it can mould if moisture gets to it and to let them know if it happens.

[Bruce Aussie Chiang Mai]

Use vegemite all the time never seem mould. When friends come from Aust they always bring some of large jars.

Keeps for years. One my friends brought tubes in January was first time I had seen.

They where great and convenient but bit to small. 

Maybe try laying a small piece of  cling wrap directly over surface of the Vegemite before putting lid on.

Good luck and hope you a happy little Vegemite.

????❤????????Vegemite 

 

 

 

[Dagfinnur Traustason]

Yeah, I agree. That´s a real unique mystery.

[polpott]

When I first moved to Thailand I brought several large jars of Marmite with me. I always kept it in a kitchen cupboard in the UK and can last for years. Within weeks of being in a cupboard in Thailand, one jar exploded and the amount of Marmite in the jar had increased considerably. I assume that due to the heat, the yeast in the Marmite had continued to grow. I now always keep my Marmite in the fridge.

[VocalNeal]

Living in Thailand has many problems. Dodgy Marmite is the yeast of your worries.

[Lacessit]

8 hours ago, Bruce Aussie Chiang Mai said:

Use vegemite all the time never seem mould. When friends come from Aust they always bring some of large jars.

Keeps for years. One my friends brought tubes in January was first time I had seen.

They where great and convenient but bit to small. 

Maybe try laying a small piece of  cling wrap directly over surface of the Vegemite before putting lid on.

Good luck and hope you a happy little Vegemite.

????❤????????Vegemite 

 

 

 

Down to my last large jar of it, but my son is assembling half a dozen squeeze tubes in a CARE package for me.

I'm a damn sight happier Vegemite here than I would be stuck in Oz.

I'm just curious as to what the organism is, can't be too many life forms that can live in it. We can live on it, but we are made of sterner stuff.

[AhFarangJa]

Have it checked out..........it may be a vaccine for Covid.............

[mrfill]

On 11/17/2020 at 12:16 AM, polpott said:

When I first moved to Thailand I brought several large jars of Marmite with me. I always kept it in a kitchen cupboard in the UK and can last for years. Within weeks of being in a cupboard in Thailand, one jar exploded and the amount of Marmite in the jar had increased considerably. I assume that due to the heat, the yeast in the Marmite had continued to grow. I now always keep my Marmite in the fridge.

But Marmite doesn't contain yeast as such. It is made from the waste gunk from brewing proper beer by which time the yeast will be exhausted. Rather like bread which is made with yeast but if you leave it, it doesn't expand.

[polpott]

20 minutes ago, mrfill said:

But Marmite doesn't contain yeast as such. It is made from the waste gunk from brewing proper beer by which time the yeast will be exhausted. Rather like bread which is made with yeast but if you leave it, it doesn't expand.

Its live yeast. Read my post. I put an unopened jar in a cupboard in Thailand and it continued to grow, smashing the jar.

[BoganInParasite]

No issues here in northern Nan province. Keep my opened jar in the refrigerator. Use a clean knife only to extract the vegemite. Yes...two knifes to prepare vegemite toast. One does the butter, the other the vegemite. Yes I'm anal and paranoid.

[Lt Frank Bullitt]

Never seen a mould problem here in Songkhla in 20 years of opened jars, now I'm Down to my last large jar ????.

The tubes have been around for 15+ years, I wrote a suggestion to Vegemite to reduce the size to 95g so they could be in your carry on then it would be a proper travel tube ????

[mrfill]

35 minutes ago, polpott said:

Its live yeast. Read my post. I put an unopened jar in a cupboard in Thailand and it continued to grow, smashing the jar.

It is not live  After fermentation, they add salt to a suspension of yeast making the solution hypertonic, which leads to the cells shrivelling up. This triggers autolysis, where the yeast’s digestive enzymes break their own proteins down into simpler compounds, a  process of self-destruction. The dying yeast cells are then heated to complete their breakdown, after which the husks (yeast with thick cell walls which would give poor texture) are separated.

[polpott]

Just now, mrfill said:

It is not live  After fermentation, they add salt to a suspension of yeast making the solution hypertonic, which leads to the cells shrivelling up. This triggers autolysis, where the yeast’s digestive enzymes break their own proteins down into simpler compounds, a  process of self-destruction. The dying yeast cells are then heated to complete their breakdown, after which the husks (yeast with thick cell walls which would give poor texture) are separated.

Wrong. The yeast is live.

[MAF666]

Do not bring Vegemite in carry on flying International.

Mine got confiscated at Sydney last week flying out.

”It is a paste and prohibited”

Was not a Happy Vegemite.

[Lacessit]

13 minutes ago, MAF666 said:

Do not bring Vegemite in carry on flying International.

Mine got confiscated at Sydney last week flying out.

”It is a paste and prohibited”

Was not a Happy Vegemite.

I remember a guy I used to work with who took a large jar into Libya. Security at the airport thought it was plastic explosive. He had to eat half the jar to convince them it was not.

[Dionigi]

2 hours ago, polpott said:

Wrong. The yeast is live.

I love people who will not accept evidence.

[Dionigi]

Double dipping the knife? I've never had marmite or vegemite go mouldy except when contaminated because people have used unclean knives or spoons.

[Grumpy one]

On 11/17/2020 at 3:38 PM, Lacessit said:

Down to my last large jar of it, but my son is assembling half a dozen squeeze tubes in a CARE package for me.

I'm a damn sight happier Vegemite here than I would be stuck in Oz.

I'm just curious as to what the organism is, can't be too many life forms that can live in it. We can live on it, but we are made of sterner stuff.

My Thai wife loves the stuff on toast so do my dogs

 

[natway09]

Always use a clean, dry knife & screw top on properly

Never put in fridge & no aircon used in kitchen

[polpott]

40 minutes ago, Dionigi said:

I love people who will not accept evidence.

I have real evidence. Why would my unopened jar of marmite explode in warm conditions?

[polpott]

22 minutes ago, natway09 said:

Always use a clean, dry knife & screw top on properly

Never put in fridge & no aircon used in kitchen

In the UK never, in Thailand always.

[PETERTHEEATER]

5 hours ago, BoganInParasite said:

No issues here in northern Nan province. Keep my opened jar in the refrigerator. Use a clean knife only to extract the vegemite. Yes...two knifes to prepare vegemite toast. One does the butter, the other the vegemite. Yes I'm anal and paranoid.

Beware. Putting Vegemite on your anus could result in a yeast infection.

[PETERTHEEATER]

4 hours ago, Lacessit said:

I remember a guy I used to work with who took a large jar into Libya. Security at the airport thought it was plastic explosive. He had to eat half the jar to convince them it was not.

He was a suicide bomber?

[shwhjw]

7 hours ago, Lacessit said:

I remember a guy I used to work with who took a large jar into Libya. Security at the airport thought it was plastic explosive. He had to eat half the jar to convince them it was not.

One of the Andy McNab books had a bit about this. The main character was smearing himself in Marmite to give himself an "Arab" look to make himself stand out less (aside from the smell), and security thought the Marmite was explosive until he started eating it.

[jesimps]

4 hours ago, polpott said:

In the UK never, in Thailand always.

Never had a mould problem with Marmite or Vegemite, even though they sometimes spend months in the cupboard. Never put in the fridge because it makes them almost impossible to spread and don't have time to let them warm up before breakfast. 

[Lacessit]

5 hours ago, Dionigi said:

Double dipping the knife? I've never had marmite or vegemite go mouldy except when contaminated because people have used unclean knives or spoons.

Possible, I use a bit of margarine before the Vegemite. However, I do ensure the Vegemite surface has no residual margarine on it.

The hypothesis fails because it only occurs in the village. The knives there are just as clean as the ones in the condo.

[Lacessit]

22 minutes ago, jesimps said:

Never had a mould problem with Marmite or Vegemite, even though they sometimes spend months in the cupboard. Never put in the fridge because it makes them almost impossible to spread and don't have time to let them warm up before breakfast. 

You could always microwave it, which has me wondering if anyone has tried it, and what the result was.

[Madgee]

Vegemite - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Vegemite

Vegemite is a thick, dark brown Australian food spread made from leftover brewers' yeast ... The U.S. Food and Drug Administration later stated that there were no plans to subject Vegemite to an import ban, or withdraw it from supermarket shelves. ... high yeast content, despite the fact that Vegemite contains no live yeast.

 

6 hours ago, Dionigi said:

8 hours ago, polpott said:

Wrong. The yeast is live.

I love people who will not accept evidence.

Hate the stuff ... Marmite rules!