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Marmite ( ) is the brand name for two similar food spreads: the original British version, since 2000 a Unilever product; and a modified version produced in New Zealand by Sanitarium Health Food Company and distributed in Australia and the Pacific. Marmite is made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing. Other similar products include the Australian Vegemite, which is saltier in taste, the Swiss Cenovis and the German Vitam-R. The British version of the product is a sticky, dark brown food paste with a distinctive, powerful flavour, which is extremely salty. This distinctive taste is reflected in the British company's marketing slogan: "Love it or hate it." The product's name has entered British English as a simile for something that is an acquired taste or tends to polarise opinions. A version with a different flavour〔 has been manufactured in New Zealand since 1919. This is the only product sold as Marmite in Australia and the Pacific, whereas elsewhere in the world the British version predominates. The image on the front of the British jar shows a "marmite" (), a French term for a large, covered earthenware or metal cooking pot.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Marmite )〕 British Marmite was originally supplied in earthenware pots, but since the 1920s has been sold in glass jars shaped like the French cooking pot. ==History== The product that was to become Marmite was invented in the late 19th century when German scientist Justus von Liebig discovered that brewer's yeast could be concentrated, bottled and eaten.〔(Marmite website )〕 In 1902 the Marmite Food Extract Company was formed in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England with Marmite as its main product and Burton as the site of the first factory.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Marmite Food Extract Co. )〕 The by-product yeast needed for the paste was supplied by Bass Brewery. By 1907, the product had become successful enough to warrant construction of a second factory at Camberwell Green in London.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Marmite Story )〕 The product's popularity prompted the Sanitarium Health Food Company to obtain sole rights to distribute the product in New Zealand and Australia in 1908.〔(Sanitarium: Marmite FAQs ).〕 They later began manufacturing Marmite under licence in Christchurch, albeit using a modified version of the original recipe, most notable for its inclusion of sugar and caramel.〔 Common ingredients are also slightly different quantities from the British version;〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Marmite FAQ )〕 the New Zealand version has high levels of potassium, for example. New Zealand Marmite is described as having a "weaker" or "less tangy" flavour than the British version.〔 It is distributed throughout Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. By 1912, the discovery of vitamins was a boost for Marmite, as the spread is a rich source of the vitamin B complex; With the vitamin B1 deficiency beri-beri being common during World War I, the spread became more popular.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Marmite Food brands Unilever )〕 British troops during World War I were issued with Marmite as part of their rations.〔 In the 1930s, Marmite was used by the English scientist Lucy Wills to successfully treat a form of anaemia in mill workers in Bombay. She later identified folic acid as the active ingredient.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Bastian H (2007), ''Lucy Wills (1888–1964): The life and research of an adventurous independent woman'', The James Lind Library )〕 Marmite was used to treat malnutrition in Suriya-Mal workers during the 1934–5 malaria epidemic in Sri Lanka. Housewives were encouraged to spread Marmite thinly and to "use it sparingly just now" because of limited rations of the product. In 1990, Marmite Limited – which had become a subsidiary of Bovril Limited – was bought by CPC International Inc, which changed its name to Best Foods Inc in 1998. Best Foods Inc subsequently merged with Unilever in 2000, and Marmite is now a trademark owned by Unilever.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title="Trade Mark 2333143" (UK Intellectual Property Office) )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Marmite」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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