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Breath Savers

Flavored mints available in Peppermint, Wintergreen, Spearmint, and Cinnamon.
Product type	Mint (candy)
Owner	The Hershey Company
Produced by	The Hershey Company
Introduced	1973; 51 years ago (1973)
Markets	United States
Previous owners	E. R. Squibb
Tagline	Break Open The Breath Savers A Mint with More
Website	www.hersheyland.com/breath-savers

Breath Savers is a brand of mint manufactured by the Hershey Company.

History

Breath Savers were introduced in 1973 by the Life Savers 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 and became sugar-free from then on. Nabisco acquired the Life Savers Company from E.R. Squibb in 1981. In 2000, after its merger with Kraft Foods, Nabisco sold its gum and breath mint business to Hershey.

Product & Packaging

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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, environmentally unconscious, plastic container, 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, a sugar alcohol containing one-third the calories of sugar and which is 60 percent the sweetness of sugar. In addition to sorbitol, Breath Savers also contains small amounts of aspartame and natural flavors.

Breath Savers have also begun advertising some of their mints to contain sodium bicarbonate, 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 to help prevent infections.

See also

• Life Savers, a similar candy available in mint
• Polo Mints
• List of breath mints

References

1. "NABISCO BRANDS TO BUY LIFE SAVERS". November 13, 1981 – via NYTimes.com.
2. "Hershey gets Nabsico units - Nov. 6, 2000". money.cnn.com.
3. "What is Sorbitol?". April 18, 2019.
4. "BREATH SAVERS - Mints - SmartLabel™". smartlabel.hersheys.com.
5. Malik, Y; Goyal, S (2006). "Virucidal efficacy of sodium bicarbonate on a food contact surface against feline calicivirus, a norovirus surrogate". International Journal of Food Microbiology. 109 (1–2): 160–3. doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2005.08.033. PMID 16540196.
6. Zamani, M; Sharifi Tehrani, A; Ali Abadi, AA (2007). "Evaluation of antifungal activity of carbonate and bicarbonate salts alone or in combination with biocontrol agents in control of citrus green mold". Communications in Agricultural and Applied Biological Sciences. 72 (4): 773–7. PMID 18396809.

External links

• Breath Savers official web site
• Slate magazine review of common breath mints (including Breath Savers)

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