For the first time in 85 years, Australians are getting a new version of their most iconic food brand, Vegemite – and it involves cream cheese.

Like its British culinary cousin Marmite, the salty, brown spread usually divides opinions among food lovers, and the new take on the Australian breakfast favourite looks set to do the same.

In a clever marketing campaign Vegemite's American producers Kraft Foods have launched a new, unnamed version of the Australian spread and given the Antipodean public the opportunity to give it a moniker.

It is the end product of a ‘Vegemite census’ where 300,000 Australian and New Zealanders were asked how they like to eat the spread which has been a staple of the Australian breakfast since it was first launched in 1923.

While many said they ate it on toast, with cheese, tomato or even avocado, the answer was unanimously that people wanted a version which was easier to spread and that does not require butter. And the result? A “smooth, velvety” mixture of Vegemite, a natural cream cheese and a secret ingredient which can be used as a dip or a spread.

Kraft Foods have launched an online competition to name the new version, which will carry the label ‘Name Me’ when it is distributed to Australian supermarkets next month. Vegemite, which was first produced by the Fred Walker Cheese Company in 1923, was originally named by members of the public after Fred Walker’s granddaughter drew the now iconic name, which had actually been created by ten people, out of a hat.

According to the makers, the spread - made famous in the 1980s Men At Work song Down Under - can be found in the pantries of 70 per cent of Australian homes.

While the new product will be sold in Australia there are currently no plans to export it to overseas. However Australian expats living in Britain will be given a special tasting when Kraft send some samples over to popular Australian haunts in London in the coming weeks.

Kraft Foods corporate affairs manager Simon Talbot said the company had previously tried to launch – unsuccessfully - a Vegemite spin-off cheese slice, but decided to do a new version of the spread for the first time to attract new customers that Kraft hopes won’t deter from the original.

“With such a well-loved, iconic brand we wouldn’t create something using the Vegemite name unless we were absolutely sure that Australians would love it,” Mr Talbot said.

The announcement of a new version sent many Vegemite lovers into a spin, with hundreds of comments flooding local newspaper websites today. Most seemed to be on the “don’t mess with the mite” side of the fence, but some were prepared to embrace it.

Some have already dubbed it ‘Vegemite-not’, others have been more creative, flooding the Herald Sun website with suggestions such as Kangamite, McVegemite, Cheesiemite, and Aussiemite.

Other names submitted so far include: I Just Mite, Vegelite, Vegesmooth and Moomite and Velvetmite.

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