In 2009 Marmite backed England at the Ashes with a limited edition cricket-ball jar and a comic single by Phil Tufnell and the Wooden Urns, sold on iTunes for 79p with the profits going to Cricket for Change. England won. In 2026 Marmite backed England at the World Cup with jars sized by how far you thought they would get. England reached the semi-final. Seventeen years apart, the same instinct, and a much better hit rate than the England cricket team of the 1990s ever managed.
Marmite Articles
Explore our collection of articles about Marmite, Britain's most divisive spread.
Is Marmite safe during pregnancy? The short answer is yes
Marmite is safe to eat in pregnancy and it is a genuinely useful source of folate, the nutrient that matters most in the first trimester. That does not make it a substitute for the folic acid supplement the NHS tells you to take, and the salt is worth keeping an eye on: about 0.86g in an 8g serving, roughly 14 per cent of an adult's daily reference intake. What the guidance actually says, without the scaremongering.
World Marmite Day is 28 September, and nobody knows who started it
World Marmite Day falls on 28 September every year. It has no founder, no organising body, no official record of who invented it and no involvement from Unilever, which makes it one of the more honest food days in the calendar. What little is known about its origins, why an unowned celebration suits this particular product rather well, and a few things to eat to mark it.
Gary Lineker and Marmite: the England striker who was 'relieved' he hates it
When Britain panicked over the 2016 Marmite shortage, Gary Lineker counted himself lucky: 'So relieved this morning that I don't like marmite.' Eight words that filed England's great goalscorer firmly in the hate camp.
Zach Galifianakis and Marmite: the Hangover star who met his match in a jar
On LADbible's Snack Wars, The Hangover star Zach Galifianakis tried Marmite and reacted with the flat deadpan horror that made him famous. One more name for the hate column, and proof the spread travels badly across the Atlantic.
Is Bovril good for you? Two professionals answer, and the salt decides it
A teaspoon of Bovril carries about 1.4g of salt, which is 23 per cent of the daily maximum for UK adults. Asked to talk up its health perks, nutritionist Rob Hobson said it is "too high in salt to be considered a health food" and dietitian Nichola Ludlam-Raine warned about blood pressure. The B vitamins come from the yeast extract, not the beef, and on her reckoning Marmite has the edge, though not by much.
What is Bovril, and what is actually in it?
Bovril is a beef and yeast extract paste: 50 per cent beef broth, 27 per cent yeast extract, which makes it a quarter of the way to being Marmite. It was invented in the 1870s by a Scottish butcher in Canada to fill Napoleon III's order for a million cans of beef, was originally called Johnston's Fluid Beef, and takes its name from the Latin for ox plus a fictional energy source from an 1871 science-fiction novel.
Is Bovril vegetarian? No, but for two years it was
No. UK Bovril is 50 per cent beef broth, plus 1 per cent beef powder. But from July 2004 to 2006 Unilever made it without any beef at all, using a yeast mix running at 45 per cent yeast extract. The reason was not vegetarians: it was BSE, an export ban on British beef, and collapsing sales in Malaysia, China and Singapore. The beef came back in 2006 because the bans lifted and sales recovered, not because the vegetarian version failed.
Stephen Mangan and Marmite: the actor who calls one topping combination a hate crime
Stephen Mangan is happily a Marmite-on-toast man, with one firm rule: marmalade and Marmite together on the same toast is, in his words, 'a hate crime'. A lover, then, who keeps his breakfast spreads in their proper lanes.
Marmite Red Leicester is on the shelf, and I would not count on it staying there
A 150g wedge of Aged Red Leicester and Marmite turned up in my local supermarket: £3, exclusive to Tesco, made under licence by the Ilchester Cheese Co in Somerset. The pack says fourteen months aged and a strength rating of five, which is a braver choice of base than the mild Red Leicester I had assumed, and a more interesting one than the cheddar versions that came before it. The Tesco reviews average 4.5 stars with nothing between five and one, and they agree on one flaw that is not the flavour. Buy it now, work out whether you like it later.
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