Smint is a brand of sugar-free breath mints owned by the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

- Dutch company Perfetti Van Melle. Is known for their distinctive packaging that dispenses one mint at a time, and for their Reuleaux triangle shape. The name is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of "sugarfree" and "mint", not of "small mint" as is commonly thought.

History

Smint was first conceived by

Chupa Chups Chupa Chups () is a Spanish brand of confectionery found in over 150 countries. The brand was founded in 1958 by Enric Bernat, and is currently owned by the Italian- Dutch company Perfetti Van Melle. The name of the brand comes from the Spanish ...

in 1990 as a sugar-free product targeted at adult consumers. After four years of development, Smint was introduced to the market as a subsidiary brand, and launched in the UK a year later in 1995. In 1996 Smint started their "No Smint, no kiss" campaign, aiming to make the brand name "smint" synonymous with "kissing breath". By 2001, Smint was the top-selling mint in its class in 90% of the markets where it was available, and in the same year Smint started a partnership with Breast Cancer Care, donating 5p to the charity for every pack of strawberry Smint sold. In 2006, Smint and Chupa Chups were taken over by Perfetti Van Melle. In 2009, Smint launched Smint-XXL tins in the UK, which are three times larger than regular Smint dispensers.

Health benefits

In 2003, Smint started advertising that the

xylitol Xylitol is a chemical compound with the formula , or HO(CH2)(CHOH)3(CH2)OH; specifically, one particular Stereoisomerism, stereoisomer with that structural formula. It is a colorless or white crystalline solid. It is classified as a polyalcoho ...

in their product provides health benefits. Xylitol has been posited to have a plaque-reducing effect which helps to prevent dental caries, but a 2014

meta-analysis Meta-analysis is a method of synthesis of quantitative data from multiple independent studies addressing a common research question. An important part of this method involves computing a combined effect size across all of the studies. As such, th ...

found only a weak effect. Despite the weak evidence for their benefits, xylitol-sweetened mints are still better for dental health than sugared breath mints, as sugar actively contributes to tooth decay while xylitol does not. Smint is endorsed by Toothfriendly International, an international dental ratings' organization which certifies products as being non-erosive to teeth and non-carcinogenic.

References

External links

* Breath mints Perfetti Van Melle brands Spanish confectionery {{brand-stub