A convicted assassin serving a life sentence in Australia has lost his bid to overturn a ban on prisoners consuming Vegemite – the salty yeast-based unfold that has become a nationwide image.

Andre McKechnie argued that the ban, in place since 2006, denied him the proper to “enjoy his culture as an Australian”.

Authorities in the state of Victoria say inmates may use the strong-smelling paste to disguise contraband substances or to brew alcohol behind bars.

And on Monday, a Supreme Court decide rejected McKechnie’s enchantment, saying the prisoner’s “cultural rights are limited primarily by the fact he has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment”.

In his lawsuit against Victoria’s Department of Justice and Corrections, the company which manages the state’s prisons, McKechnie, 54, said the ban on the unfold breached regulation requiring prisons to present meals that allowed inmates to preserve their well being and well-being but the decide said that had not been confirmed.

McKechnie was handed a life sentence for stabbing a property developer to demise in Queensland in the Nineteen Nineties. He served half of his sentence in Queensland before being transferred to Victoria.

During the listening to, the court docket heard proof from Corrections Victoria that the scent of vegemite can distract sniffer canine attempting to detect medicine being introduced into jail.

The product is also banned in jails in Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania.

A much-loved breakfast unfold for some, Vegemite has acquired controversial accolades since it first hit store cabinets in Australia in 1923.

The thick, brown unfold was invented in the Victorian capital of Melbourne more than a century in the past as an various to the British unfold Marmite.

It sparked an worldwide dispute in April last yr when an Australian cafe proprietor in Canada was instructed to take away jars of the condiment from his cabinets as it did not comply with native well being laws.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese intervened in the row, saying it was “rather odd” that Canada allowed the sale of Vegemite’s “rubbish” rival product Marmite. The cafe proprietor was later allowed to proceed promoting the unfold.