Episode Details

Marmite began as the sludgy yeast left at the bottom of beer barrels. In 1902 the Marmite Food Extract Company set up in Burton upon Trent beside the Bass Brewery and mastered autolysis, using salt to make yeast cells break themselves down into a smooth, savory paste.

This episode follows Marmite from World War I rations to Lucy Wills and her discovery of the Wills Factor, later identified as folic acid, and its use during the 1934 to 1935 malaria epidemic in Ceylon. We then unpack its huge glutamate content, medical cautions around gluten and MAOI antidepressants, the famous love it or hate it campaign, and its international regulatory dramas.

• How salt-driven autolysis turns spent brewer's yeast into a spreadable, nutrient-dense extract
• Why B vitamins made Marmite a military ration and a tool against anemia and malnutrition
• The tyramine risk for people on MAOI antidepressants and why Marmite is low gluten but not gluten-free
• How the 1996 love it or hate it slogan turned polarization into brand loyalty and the Marmite effect
• Vegemite, the OurMate rebrand, Denmark's 2011 licensing pull and Canada's 2014 seizures