Breath Savers is a brand of mint manufactured by the
Hershey Company
The Hershey Company, commonly known as Hershey's, is an American multinational company and one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world. It also manufactures baked products, such as cookies and cakes, and sells beverages like milksh ...
.
History
Breath Savers were introduced in 1973 by the
Life Savers
Life Savers (stylized as LifeSavers) is an American brand of ring-shaped hard and soft candy. Its range of mints and fruit-flavored candies is known for its distinctive packaging, coming in paper-wrapped aluminum foil rolls.
Candy manufacturer C ...
Company, a division of
E.R. Squibb, in limited areas, and were originally sugared. The brand became a national brand in 1978 when it replaced sugar with
saccharin
Saccharin (''aka'' saccharine, Sodium sacchari) is an artificial sweetener with effectively no nutritional value. It is about 550 times as sweet as sucrose but has a bitter or metallic aftertaste, especially at high concentrations. Saccharin is u ...
and became sugar-free from then on.
Nabisco
Nabisco (, abbreviated from the earlier name National Biscuit Company) is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International.
Nabisco's ...
acquired the Life Savers Company from E.R. Squibb in 1981. In 2000, after its merger with
Kraft Foods
The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015.
A merger with Heinz, arra ...
, Nabisco sold its gum and breath mint business to
Hershey.
Product & Packaging
As the name and design suggests, Breath Savers are modeled after Life Savers, beveled at the outer edges and having a shallow depression in the center, on both sides. Each Breath Saver is counterembossed on one side with the legend "BREATH SAVER" in raised letters about 0.3 mm high in a circular pattern around the center. They are packaged in three ways:
*A cylindrical roll, with 12 mints in each roll.
*In a disc-shaped plastic tin, sold as "Breath Savers 3 Hour Mints".
*In an oblong container, sold as "Breath Savers Protect". This is a deposit mint made of 99% xylitol.
Ingredients
The main ingredient found in Breath Savers is
sorbitol
Sorbitol (), less commonly known as glucitol (), is a sugar alcohol with a sweet taste which the human body metabolizes slowly. It can be obtained by reduction of glucose, which changes the converted aldehyde group (−CHO) to a primary alcohol g ...
, found naturally in found naturally in some fruits, including apples, apricots, dates, berries and peaches, it is a sugar alcohol containing one-third the calories of sugar and which is 60 times sweeter than sugar. In addition to
sorbitol
Sorbitol (), less commonly known as glucitol (), is a sugar alcohol with a sweet taste which the human body metabolizes slowly. It can be obtained by reduction of glucose, which changes the converted aldehyde group (−CHO) to a primary alcohol g ...
, Breath Savers also contains small amounts of
aspartame
Aspartame is an artificial non-saccharide sweetener 200 times sweeter than sucrose and is commonly used as a sugar substitute in foods and beverages. It is a methyl ester of the aspartic acid/phenylalanine dipeptide with the trade names ...
and natural flavors.
Breath Savers have also begun advertising some of their mints to contain
sodium bicarbonate
Sodium bicarbonate (IUPAC name: sodium hydrogencarbonate), commonly known as baking soda or bicarbonate of soda, is a chemical compound with the formula NaHCO3. It is a salt composed of a sodium cation ( Na+) and a bicarbonate anion ( HCO3−) ...
, an alkaline salt used in many personal hygiene products as a mechanical cleanser on the teeth and gums. It also neutralizes the production of acid in the mouth, and acts as an
antiseptic
An antiseptic (from Greek ἀντί ''anti'', "against" and σηπτικός ''sēptikos'', "putrefactive") is an antimicrobial substance or compound that is applied to living tissue/skin to reduce the possibility of infection, sepsis, or putre ...
to help prevent infections.
See also
*
Life Savers
Life Savers (stylized as LifeSavers) is an American brand of ring-shaped hard and soft candy. Its range of mints and fruit-flavored candies is known for its distinctive packaging, coming in paper-wrapped aluminum foil rolls.
Candy manufacturer C ...
, a similar candy available in mint
*
Polo Mints
Polo is a brand of breath mint whose defining feature is the hole in the middle. The peppermint flavoured Polo was first manufactured in the United Kingdom in 1948, by employee John Bargewell at the Rowntree's Factory, York, and a range of flavour ...
*
List of breath mints
This is a list of breath mint brands in alphabetical order. A breath mint is a type of candy primarily consumed to freshen the smell of one's breath, by masking offensive odors with the scent of mint or other flavoring, and by stimulating the flo ...
References
External links
Breath Savers official web siteSlate magazine review of common breath mints (including Breath Savers)
Breath mints
American confectionery
Brand name confectionery
Products introduced in 1973
The Hershey Company brands
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