Army Marmite row spreads to second front (CORRECTED)
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Your support makes all the difference.CORRECTION (PUBLISHED 5 JULY 1994) APPENDED TO THIS ARTICLE
MARMITE may be the breakfast the nation wakes up to but UN bureaucrats are threatening to withdraw the beef spread from the rations of British troops serving in Bosnia.
The threat to the staple diet of the British troops posed by the UN protection force (Unprofor) has so alarmed some MPs they have urged ministers to intervene.
The Commons Select Committee on Defence, chaired by beefy Tory MP Sir Nicholas Bonsor, was horrified to discover Unprofor was already testing its alternative menus on British troops.
The MPs, who tasted British rations on tours of Bosnia, complained that in place of 'sustaining foods' such as meat pies, black pudding rings, Marmite, steak and kidney puddings and Shredded Wheat, squaddies are being given 'faloukorv without garlic' and 'goat, bone-in'.
Sir Nicholas and his committee took a sniffy view of this foreign diet. They said there was unlikely to be much call by the British troops for 'biscuits, petit beurre'. They were also disturbed to hear that the standard of tea bags and baked beans in Bosnia were 'well below that supplied by the British military'.
The committee fear that the Unprofor menu was forced on the British troops because British soldiers' rations were costing about twice the UN per capita rate.
They have urged ministers to supplement their rations with British food. And they believe the bureaucrats need to learn the wisdom of Napoleon's dictum that an army marches on its stomach.
'It may be that the British soldier eats more, and we have little doubt that he eats better, than his colleagues. We would be be loath to ratify any changes in that situation,' the committee said.
CORRECTION
An article in yesterday's Independent incorrectly described Marmite as a beef spread. Marmite is a yeast extract and a vegetarian product.
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