EDITORIAL: Dark days in choiceless Denmark

DURING MY EARLY school years it often graced the slices of bread packed into a lunchbox that sort of resembled a miniature suitcase.
Sometimes, if dad had managed a bit of overtime to expand the weekly grocery budget, we'd have some cheese to accompany it.
Marmite - that dark and bitingly flavoured spread produced as a result of brewer's yeast being processed (not that we knew that back then) has long been a sort of Kiwi staple ... although it has to be said it is an acquired taste.
I spotted on one website the words of an American visitor to these shores who wrote, "How can you eat that stuff? It is just disgusting."
Well fair enough, but I kind of find that orange lard the Americans call cheese pretty hard to get the tastebuds around.
Food is a very selective thing.
Ask the Aussies.
Like the way they go into the transtasman Anzac league tests, they will champion "their" spreadable champion (Vegemite) until the koalas come home.
Some people love Marmite and others will leave it on the shelf.
But it's there if you want it.
But not in Denmark.
There is no choice in Denmark. It has been removed by the food safety people as it is deemed to be dangerous ... too many added vitamins, those food safety people declared.
I didn't think you could have too many vitamins ... but there you go.
It doesn't matter that fast food, alcohol and tobacco flows through the streets of Copenhagen ... that Marmite stuff has to go.
You see the Danes introduced legislation back in 2004 restricting the sale of foods fortified with extra vitamins and minerals.
Also on the "it's not good for you" list is Ovaltine, Horlicks, Shreddies and Rice Crispies.
To be honest, I can think of far worse things that should be pulled from the shelves.
I used to think the Danes were pretty open and liberal and accepting of diversity.
After all, they've got a statue of a naked lady sitting on a rock in the harbour.
And when I was over there about a thousand years ago, heavily fortified drinks were a staple part of life ... especially in the cold winters.
But Marmite? Nope.
Surely food is an individual choice. What I like you may not. Okay, if it has "chemical additives" and has been modified in the field then there should be question marks.
But for items like Marmite, choice is surely choice.
Don't want additional vitamins? Then don't buy it.
I daresay the only ones who may have been laughing were the Aussies ... but the chuckling wouldn't have lasted long because now the Dane's have gone and banned Vegemite as well.