Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing Company

During his time in Australia in the 1890s, William C. White convinced Seventh-day Adventist Edward Halsey, a baker at John Harvey Kellogg's Battle Creek Sanitarium, to emigrate to Australia. Halsey arrived in Sydney, New South Wales, on 8 November 1897. He rented a small bakery in Melbourne, and produced granola (made of wheat, oats, maize, and rye) and Granose (the unsweetened forerunner to Weet-Bix). Halsey and his team sold it from door to door as an alternative to the fat-laden and nutrient-poor foods popular at the time. The business relocated to larger premises in Cooranbong, New South Wales, next to the campus of the seminary which became Avondale University College. in the Christchurch suburb of Papanui. Sanitarium New Zealand and Sanitarium Australia are now separate companies, but work together. A factory was operating in Palmerston North in New Zealand, but closed in the late 1990s. The Hackney factory in Adelaide, South Australia was closed in October 2010, followed by the Cooranbong factory in 2018. In June 2017, Sanitarium caused controversy when it objected to a specialty shop-owner based in Christchurch, New Zealand, trying to import 300 boxes of Weetabix into the country. New Zealand Customs detained the boxes at the request of Sanitarium on the grounds the British-made Weetabix competed with and confused the branding of their own New Zealand-made 'Weet-bix'. Sanitarium faced a backlash in New Zealand as a result. After failing to come to a settlement, Sanitarium filed civil action against the shop owner. The case hearing began in the High Court at Christchurch on 30 July 2018. Weetabix is also sold as "Whole Wheat Biscuits" in Australia (as international food). ==Tax exemption==

Neither the Australia nor the New Zealand Sanitarium companies pay company tax on their profits, due to their ownership by a religious organisation. On their official website, Sanitarium defend their tax exemption with several points, stating they operate exclusively for charitable purposes, and that income tax exemptions are available to all companies and individuals in New Zealand who limit themselves to charitable purposes. However, the exemption has been criticised and is considered unfair by their competitors. According to their last annual return as of February 2019, businesses operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church reported more than $10 million profit. ==Products==

Honey Puffs Honey Puffs were a wheat breakfast cereal coated with honey made in Australia and New Zealand that was discontinued in June 2025. Marmite Marmite is a food spread made in New Zealand. It is made from yeast extract, by-product of beer brewing. So Good (soy beverage) So Good (also known as SoGood or So-Good) is a brand of non-dairy beverages, foods, and desserts that are lactose, cholesterol and gluten-free. So Good is manufactured by Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing Company in Australia and New Zealand. In Canada, it was prepared by Earth's Own. So Good is sold in India by Life Health Foods. In Australia, So Good produces soy milk, as well as almond milk and almond and coconut milk. They also produce flavoured soy milk and frozen soy desserts. In India, So Good produces almond milk and almond and coconut milk, in addition to soy milk. They also produce flavoured soy milk, flavoured almond milk, fortified soy milk, and variants of oat milk. In June 2013, Choice magazine released a study of 23 liquid breakfast products questioning the validity of claims that were made by manufacturers including Up & Go claims regarding fibre content. Sanitarium defended Up & Go in a release citing the current code of practice for nutrient claims that a product must contain a minimum of 3 g of dietary fibre per serving to be considered "high in fiber" and Up & Go contained 3.8 g of fibre per 250-ml serving. Weet-Bix Weet-Bix is a wheat breakfast cereal made in Australia and New Zealand and in South Africa by Bokomo. ==References==