. Vegemite is typically considered an acquired taste at best by those who weren't raised on it.

The last U.S. president to visit Australia, Barack Obama, once said:  It's horrible. 

Prisoner argues Vegemite ban contributed to vitamin deficiency

McKechnie had initially testified that the lack of Vegemite had contributed to his thiamine deficiency.

He said both Vegemite and pork were sources of thiamine, also known as vitamin B1. As a Jew who observed kosher law, he told the court he couldn't eat pork either and took daily doses of the vitamin.

Vegemite has long been marketed as a source of B vitamins thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3) and folate (B9), which are promoted as healthy additions to the diets of growing children.

But McKechnie dropped the thiamine issue as  not important,  after lawyers for the prison authorities objected to his evidence.

Prisoner said Vegemite ban left him feeling  deprived, sad and disconnected'

McKechnie said not eating Vegemite made him feel  deprived of being able to practice my Australian culture, sad and disconnected from my family and community. 

The judge responded that  it is difficult to accept that the inability to consume Vegemite, rather than the fact of his imprisonment, is a material cause of his sadness and disconnection from his family and community. 

McKechnie cited an article published in the food studies journal  Gastronomica  in 2003 that said,  Vegemite may be the best predictor of national identity of any food in the world. 

The article, based on research by Australia's Queensland University in 1995, found that a  taste for the spread strongly correlates with early exposure and to Australian birth and ancestry. 

McKechnie also referred to the Australian Olympic Committee overturning a Chinese import ban on Vegemite ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

He cited Australian band Men at Work's 1980s international hit  Down Under  that mentions a  Vegemite sandwich. 

On the effectiveness of smearing contraband with Vegemite, McKechnie cited a Melbourne newspaper article from 2017 that reported a man's unsuccessful attempt to use the odor of the spread to conceal illicit drugs that he attempted to smuggle into a music festival in Victoria. The attempt was thwarted by police sniffer dogs.

Judge rejects evidence that Vegemite doesn't interfere with drug sniffer dogs

The judge upheld prison authorities' argument that McKechnie had failed to provide any proper foundations for his opinion that Vegemite does not interfere with drug sniffer dogs.

McKechnie also argued that Vegemite contained  no live yeast  and that any piece of fruit would be more useful in making alcohol than the spread.

A state prison department manager, Kevin White, cited publicly available research that said Vegemite helped home-brewed beer ferment more quickly.

Vegemite's owner, Bega Group, did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.