Can you imagine working in an environment with the odor of bad breath? Enter the Listerine ‘Stink Lab’ in Morris Plains, NJ where the room is kept between 91 and 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the average temperature of a mouth. Bacteria flourishes from the donated saliva from employees leaving behind a stench that remains on clothes for hours. This is where they test the new Listerine products created to meet public demands: alcohol-free Listerine Zero, popular in Muslim countries where spirits are forbidden; Green Tea Listerine, made specifically for Asian markets; Listerine Naturals, geared toward Americans’ obsession with non synthetic ingredients. A team of scientists create new flavors and varieties that will “kill germs that cause bad breath,” as its longtime slogan goes.
Listerine’s widening group of cosmetic variations should kill at least 99 percent of germs, and the lab performs a “critical kill time” test on new formulas. The test exposes bacteria to Listerine for 30 or 60 seconds, depending on how long one must swish it around. That means the lab needs a constant stream of fresh mouth germs, where the foul smell lets staff members know that the growth process is working.
I wonder how long does it claim to work for? Often bad breath comes from your stomach in which case the mouthwash won’t work. The tongue can be the culprit of bad breath too so scraping the tongue with a tongue cleaner or brush can greatly reduce bad breath. Have you noticed that you can still smell the bad breath through the pleasant fresh smelling mouthwash?
