Everything You Want to Know About Breath Mint

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    Breath Mint

    Background

    Aromatic herbs have been used throughout history in a number of ways; fragrant soaps,pomanders, bath-water fresheners, potpourri, sachets, incense, scented candles, and natural herbsto sweeten sour breath are common in most cultures and popular today. Aromatic herbs have theadvantage of driving away insects, and the mint family has an especially excellent reputation forkeeping pests away from people and other plants. It is often grown among other plants, likemembers of the cabbage family. Spearmintis grown most commonly, but peppermint, and apple,lemon, and pineapple mint are familiar occupants of many gardens.

    Mints are perennials that spread rapidly and grow quickly. The mint family is called Labiataeand includes about 160 genera, of whichMentha includes the true mints. Spearmint andpeppermint are grown extensively in a surprisingly robust health mint industry that produces

    mainly oil. Over 70,000 acres (28,328 hectares) of farmland in Indiana, Michigan, Washington,and Oregon produce these two types of mint for a wide range of commercial uses.

    For natural solutions to the problem of maintaining sweet breath, a small piece of nutmeg orangelica root can be chewed, or a piece of the herb called mace can be placed in the mouth forseveral minutes. Obviously, the most common herbal breath mints are the mints. A leaf or twofrom any of the commonly grown mint plants, including peppermint, can be eaten to freshen thebreath and aid digestion. Many references about herbs provide recipes for making toothpaste andmouthwash from pepper-mint and other herbs and natural ingredients that avoid the detergentsand sugar found in commercial products.

    Parsley, fennel, watercress, alfalfa, and pulverized nettleleaves all contain chlorophyllthat isused in many commercial breath fresheners like Clorets. Chewing a bud of clove immediatelyrelieves bad breath (especially after eating garlic-laden foods) and aids digestion, as does clovechewing gum.

    History

    Over 4,000 years ago, people sucked on whole cloves to cleanse their breath. Cloverather thanmintis probably the oldest and most common herb used for fresh breath. The Phariseescollected tithes in mint and other sweet-smelling herbs, and the Hebrews and Christians spread it

    on the floors of synagogues and churches as a symbol of cleanliness and hospitality. In theMiddle Ages, anise seed was chewed slowly as a breath freshener (and to cover up odors fromliquor consumption). Cardamon seeds are also natural breath sweeteners that have been chewedboth in the Orient and in Europe since ancient times. In colonial North America, settlersdiscovered that small bits of calamus (sweet sedge) root and pieces of dried orris root (the root ofthe Florentine iris) had similar sweetening effects.

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    In modern times, breath mints were a logical progression from hard candies and chewing gumit was gum that really launched breath mints as a separate market segment. Hard candies, madefrom boiling sugar to a hard rolling boil, have been made over the kitchen fire since ancienttimes; commercially, hard mints like peppermints and glacier mints (clear candies) were made inVictorian England,

    Tablet-shaped mints are made in a rotary tablet press, consisting of four punch and dies that move

    along belts. Large rollers continuously move the belts and the punches and dies are pushed up and

    pulled down by adjustable cams.

    on the European continent, and in the United States. But the candy market was as volatile in the 1800s

    as it is today, and manufacturers have always searched for something new. In 1869, Thomas Adams, an

    inventor from New York, stumbled on the idea of replacing paraffin wax that was used like chewing gum

    with chicle, a rubbery fluid produced by some trees. The pelletized chicle was sold in boxes, and new

    flavors of the chewing gum were introduced over the next 100 years. Many of these flavors had breath-and health-enhancing properties; examples are pepsin (a digestive aid) in Beeman's gum, sassafras and

    licorice, cloves, Dentyne (the first gum aimed at dental hygiene), Sen-Sen and chlorophyll, cinnamon,

    and many varieties of mint.

    In the 1950s, American Chicle introduced Certs. The need for a mint dedicated to fresh breathhad been identified in consumer research. Toothpaste and mouthwash were simply notconvenient or portable, and candy mints had no proven association with fresh breath. Certscombined both candy and a breath freshener in a small package. The breath-fresheningingredient was "Retsyn," a mixture of copper gluconate and cottonseed oil that was trademarkedby American Chicle. A sugar-free product was introduced in 1982 and reformulated in 1987 with

    NutraSweet; 1988 retail sales of both the sugar and sugar-free versions of Certs topped $190million. Also in 1988, the company introduced Sugar Free Certs Mini-Mints, and this began themini-mint fad that still has a strong grip on the breath-mint market in 2000. Ten years later, in1998, the breath-freshener market grew by 13% in one year, while all other gum and candyexpanded by only 2.3%, according to the National Confectioners Association.

    Breath mints have not been without controversy. The Nutrition Labeling and Education Actrequires that every food product have a serving size and the equivalent number of calorie stated

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    on the package. Breath mints posed a significant problem for the Food and Drug Administration(FDA), which took six years to study how to classify serving size and associated calories. Hardcandies have a single serving of 0.5oz (15 g), and the FDA initially lumped breath mints in thehard candy category; but 0.5oz (15 g) equals a whole packet of breath mints. The FDA thendecided 0.07oz (2 g) (about the same as a single Certs or Breath Saver) would be a suitable

    single serving. The mini-mint producers objected. Lawyers for Tic Tac claimed that this singleserving would be five of their mints. The argument shifted back and forth until the FDA finallyruled that a single serving should equal a single unitone mintregardless of size.Effectiveness of breath-freshening was left to be determined by the consumer.

    Raw Materials

    The bulk of all breath mints is some form of sugar or a sugar substitute. Sugar is present assucrose or dextrose, and the most common sugar substitutes are sorbitol or zilotrol, (chemistsclassify both of these as polyhedric alcohols). Binders hold the particles of the other dryingredients together. Common binders are corn syrup, natural gums like gum arabic, and gelatin.

    Tablet-type mints also include lubricants that help the dry materials flow through the press,prevent them from sticking to the machinery faces, and pop out of the dies after they have beencompressed. Magnesium stearate, stearic acid, and calcium stearate are lubricants in manycandies and breath mints. Some mints also include disintegrants that help the mint dissolve,disperse, and become absorbed during digestion. Natural or artificial flavors and the breath-freshener complete the raw materials. Most companies closely guard the secret ingredients of thebreath-freshener itself. The outside of the mint may look polished; carnuba wax is the secret tothe gloss.

    Design

    Breath mints come in three basic configurations. The mini-mints like Tic Tac and Blitz mints aretiny tablets or compressed mints that have a hard outer shell made by a process called panning.The design of the mint itself is tiny with a compressed center that is easy to manufacture and anattractive shell with a bright color, cute shape, or shiny finish. They are packaged in small,convenient, eye-catching boxes; several of these have won international design awards, showingthat packaging is just as important in the design process as the contents. Roll mints like BreathSavers and Certs are shaped like Life Savers but the holes in the centers may be filled. Thesemints are hard; the filled center is usually brightly colored. They are also made by the tabletingor compressed process. The packages are convenient rolls and have the familiarity of LifeSavers.

    Other hard mints include square-shaped Velamints from West Germany, which are packaged insquared tubes, and Altoids from England in their collectible mini-tins; these mints are made froman extruded dough. Mints with soft centers are the third class; they can be made in a batchprocess or by panning. Mentos from Holland and Vikings from Denmark are the leaders in thisfield. These mints are larger in diameter than the mini-mints, and they have a hard outer shellwith a chewy center. Recent additions to the mint marketplace include Testamints (with Bibleverses on the tins) and Web Fuel (tins shaped like computer mice bearing Internet web siteaddresses).

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    Many of the leading mints manufactured in Europe were originally aimed at the children's candymarket, but this market has very rapid shifts as children's interests change. When sales began todecline among children in Europe, the manufacturers shifted their attention to the adult market inAmerica and the preoccupation with sweet breath. Some of the designs stayed the same despitethe shift in market; the bright oranges, reds, and greens of some of these mints themselves and

    especially their packaging are holdovers from targeting European children.

    The adult market in the United States for candy generally has grown steadily since about 1980.By a simple shift in emphasis, Ferrero, the European chocolate company that makes Tic Tacs,was able to keep its eye-catching colors and packaging but market the mint as a "1.5-caloriebreath mint." The low calories, breath protection, and cute presentation appeals particularly toyoung women; from 1980 to 1990, Tic Tac's market share rose from 2% to 12% with this changein advertising approach.

    The Manufacturing Process

    Tableted or compressed mints

    Tableted candies and mints are an offshoot of the pharmaceutical industry that makes pills. Thesame accuracy that produces just the right dose in a lozenge or tablet for medicinal purposes alsomakes mints efficiently with the right distribution of flavor and breath freshener. Tablets aremade with rotary presses that use a rotating die table and compression rollers to turn out as manyas 10,000 mints per minute.

    1 The ingredients for mints arrive at the factory in powder form. They are granulated in a mixingand bonding method that helps them flow through a tablet press. The process involves

    pulverizing (pounding) them to a fine consistency, mixing (most often in a dry process, althoughwet mixing can be used), compacting the ingredients, sizing the finished grains (sorting out the

    coarse particles), mixing the ingredients, and flowing them into the tableting machine. The

    moisture content is controlled throughout the process (whether it is wet or dry), and the

    granules are dried on bed dryers (flat systems) or rotary dryers. Mixingone of the last steps

    is the process in which flavors and active ingredients like breath fresheners are added for the

    most uniform distribution. Lubricants are mixed last so they coat all the other ingredients well.

    2 The prepared, granulated, mixed ingredients are conveyed to the tableting machine. Whilethis sounds straightforward, the conveyors cannot have any bends or turns that might sort the

    materials, and temperature and moisture have to be strictly controlled along the route. Some

    ingredients, particularly the lubricants, begin to separate from the other ingredients if

    conditions aren't correct. Some flavors like grape react with sugars if there is too much moisture

    in the air and begin to turn brown; gelatin also browns if conditions are too warm or dry.

    3 The rotary tablet press consists of four punches that move along an upper belt paired to fourdies that move along a bottom belt. The belts themselves are continuously turned around large

    rollers. The punches and dies are pushed up toward each other and pulled down by adjustable

    cams. As the ingredients enter the rotary tablet press, the granulated ingredients are channeled

    into a feeder (the upper punch) that fills a die seated in the bottom of the pair. The cavity of the

    die has to be filled with the volume of granulated ingredients. The second stage of the press

    adjusts the weight and scrapes excess material off the top of the die. In the third, compression

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    stage, the cams drive the upper punch and the lower die together, compressing the ingredient

    into a tablet. The punch and die have been designed to have the shape of the breath mint and

    possibly its name cut into it, so the compressed result has the identity of the mint firmly

    stamped in place. In the fourth step, the lower cam pushes out (ejects or extrudes) the stamped

    mint and the upper part pushes it out of the press where it is collected in a bin.

    4 The bin funnels the compressed mint tablets to the next process. This may be panning orpackaging.

    Extruded or batch process mints

    5 Some mints are made much like hard candies, and are cooked as a batch that flows in acontinuous process that shapes and sizes the batch ingredients into the shape of the mint. In a

    dry, uncooked process, a dry dough with a sugar base is made. The batch or the dry dough is

    funneled through a roller with a general shape much like a pointed ice cream cone but with the

    opening shaped to the desired form of the candy, perhaps a triangle, a diamond, or a barrel.

    Either the cooked batch or the extruded dry dough is forced through this roller, and each candy

    length is cut as the ingredient emerges. Extruded dough mints can be recognized by their

    irregular surface.

    The panning process

    6 Panning is not usually used to make an entire candy or mint but to give a mint a finishedcoating. Hollow globe-shaped pans with a hole in one side are made of copper and are rotated

    much like small cement mixers so the hole stays angled upward. Mints made by compression,

    batching, or extrusion are placed in relatively small quantities in the pans. Sugar, flavors, and

    colors are added; as the pan rotates, a hard shell of the sugar forms on the outside of the mint.

    In the same process or another panning operation, wax or a polishing agent may be put in the

    pan with the mints to give them an attractive luster. The rotation of the pan can also help

    develop the finished shape of the mint; the oval shape of many of the minimints is createdduring panning.

    Packaging

    7 When the mints are finished by the processes described above, they are carried topackaging machines to be wrapped. Usually, they are carried a short distance onconveyors, and inspectors watch the passing flow of mints and pick out broken orimperfect examples. Depending on the type of packing, the mints may be simplychanneled into a funnel that deposits them in small boxes or tins. If they are wrapped intubes of paper, they are vibrated and gently pressed into line and wrapped with the

    preprinted packaging. The packages must also be carefully designed to protect theproduct; an inner paper of foil, a foil/wax paper laminate, or odor-free plastic is neededfor roll mints. Cellophane wraps over paper, tin, or plastic novelty boxes may be neededto keep the mints inside isolated from air and moisture.

    The plastic novelty packs were made possible by the uniformity of compressed candiesand mints. Pez-Haas originated the famous Pez dispenser because the square candies fit

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    so neatly. Similarly, high-speed wrapping of roll-type candies was pioneered by the Life-Saver Company.

    Quality Control

    Quality control of breath mints begins with chemistry when the food scientists who devise a newmint select the combination of ingredients, processes, and machinery that can produce thedesired product. Throughout the process, few hands touch the operation but many eyes watch.The machines are maintained and cleaned with great attention to detail, not only for health andsafety but because some materials are abrasive to the expensive dies that form the mints. Roomsfor various processes have controls for temperature, light, and humidity; dust is also carefullycontrolled because the very fine dust generated from pulverizing ingredients can actually explodein the right combination of conditions. Skilled observers watch the high-speed presses, theturning pans, and the sorting and packaging machines. Mints are rejected for the slightest flaws,yet there is little waste because they can be reground and mixed back into the powders to formlater batches.

    The Future

    Breath mints seem to have a secure place in American life because of the importance ofappearance, good health, and cleanliness in our modern lifestyle. Mints, however, are part of thevolatile candy and confection market and frequently change face to match the latest trends. Thebreath-mint manufacturers smell out the latest trends by testing their ideasfrom new packagingto actual mint samplesamong focus groups of actual consumers. If the focus groups endorsethe product, a mini test market, like a small town, will be given samples to assess wider appeal.If the new breath mint passes that test, large-scale sales and marketing campaigns are launched.The explosive sales of mini mints show both the present and the future of the breath mint; clever,

    eye-catching packaging that makes breath mints portable and trendy have helped and will helpconsumers and manufacturers alike breathe easily.

    Where to Learn More

    Books

    Bremness, Lesley. The Complete Book of Herbs.New York: Viking Studio Books, 1988.

    Castleman, Michael. The Healing Herbs: The Ultimate Guide to the Curative Powers of Nature'sMedicines.New York: Bantam Books, 1991.

    Hylton, William H., ed. The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature's MiraclePlants. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press Book Division, 1976.

    Kowalchik, Claire, and William H. Hylton, eds.Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs.Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press Book Division, 1976.

    Thomas, Lalitha. 10 Essential Herbs. Prescott, AZ: Hohm Press, 1996.