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.
Competitors & Alternatives
Vegemite, Bovril, Promite, and other yeast extract products from around the world.
Category: Competitors & Alternatives | View all articles
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.
Could Vegemite buy Marmite?
Yes, technically. Probably not. Definitely not in any way Britain would survive. Bear with me. This is the most fun thought experiment in the whole McCormick story, and it ends in a place that says something useful about why the yeast-extract category is shaped the way it is.
Marmite substitute: what to use instead, for cooking and for toast
The best substitute for Marmite depends on the job. For savoury depth in cooking, Vegemite, another yeast extract, miso or soy sauce all work; for spreading on toast, only another yeast extract really does. The full list, quantities, and the trap to avoid.
Marmite around the world: New Zealand, South Africa, Vegemite, and why none of them are British Marmite
Yeast extract spreads are a small global family. They are all built from the same trick: take leftover brewer's yeast, autolyse it (let the cells digest themselves with their own enzymes), and concentrate the result.
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