Australian cafe owner in Toronto told to de-Vegemite his Canadian chain
A Toronto cafe owner has run afoul of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency over the sale of Vegemite by his small chain of restaurants.
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Leighton Walters moved to Toronto in 2019 after working in coffee shops across Australia and Indonesia for 18 years, and founded Found Coffee, which now has locations in Toronto and Guelph.
The restaurant has Vegemite — a food spread popular in Australia — as part of some of its dishes, and sells it directly to customers as well. It even sells Vegemite-branded sneakers, hats, towels and scarves.
“I grew up as a Vegemite kid eating it for breakfast every second day,” Walters told CBC Toronto. “It’s an iconic Australian product. We’ve been so proud to serve it to thousands and tens of thousands of Australians, Canadians, travellers and tourists.”
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The product, which uses “Tastes Like Australia” as one of its slogans, is to Australians what maple syrup is to Canadians.
But in January the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) told Walters that a batch of Vegemite he had just received was non-compliant with Health Canada regulations.
“The Vegemite product being sold was found to have added vitamins which are not permitted in this product as per the Food and Drug Regulations and is therefore not permitted to be sold in Canada,” a CFIA spokesperson told CBC in an email.
As a result, Walters must destroy about $8,000 worth of the product.
The story has gained traction around the world, with pointed interest from Australia, where even Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has weighed in on the matter during his campaign for re-election in May.
“I stand with the Aussie cafe owner,” Albanese said when he heard the news from a reporter while on the campaign trail. “I can confirm here today that I am pro-Vegemite. And, indeed, I actually put a lot of Vegemite on my toast when I ate bread.”
In a video posted to an Australian news site, Walters explained that he woke up from surgery to the news. He said he was “absolutely floored because Vegemite is still available on Amazon … but the CFIA saw that we were an importer of record for a pallet of Vegemite once a year and gave us an inspection notice and demanded for all of it to be taken off the shelf and Vegemite to be taken off our menu.”
In the video, Walters says he has spina bifida, a birth defect that can be caused by a lack of folate at conception.
“One of the major things that Vegemite adds to everyone’s daily diet is a high amount of folate, which helps minimize neural tube defects and minimizes the chance for anyone to ever go through what I’m been through,” he explains.
He adds: “This is now a huge battle that I really didn’t want to fight for the sake of $8,000 worth of Vegemite that we have left.” But he says he has received supports from Canadians and Australians alike.
“We’re going to try our best to push back and do what’s right and make sure that we can just sell our bloody Vegemite.”
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