isithalal.food

Is Smints Halal?

It depends on what the label says.

Halal if verified
Medium confidence About this ruling

About this ruling

Condition
Source disclosure is incomplete
Evidence confidence
Medium means the sources are named, but they do not pin the evidence to a specific market or product. Use this page as orientation, then read the pack in your hand.
How we score High, Medium, and Low

Reviewed

Smint is a sugar-free breath mint now made by Perfetti Van Melle.

Next step Smints have no gelatin, meat or alcohol listed. The current UK Smint XXL pack lists magnesium salts of fatty acids (E470b), an anti-caking agent whose fat source is not stated, and no Smint pack shows a Halal mark. Read your tin: if it lists only sweeteners, flavourings, maltodextrin and vegetable oil, nothing on it raises a question. How to verify
Scan a label

Photo: Open Food Facts contributors · CC BY-SA 3.0

How to verify

  1. No gelatin, meat or alcohol on Smint packs.
  2. Look for 'magnesium salts of fatty acids' or 'magnesium stearate' (E470b): the fat source is not stated.
  3. Older or other tins may list only sweeteners, flavourings, maltodextrin and vegetable oil.
  4. No Halal mark on the packs checked.

Quick checks

  • No gelatin.
  • E470b in Smint XXL: source unstated.
  • No Halal mark.

What decides the answer

  • Smint with magnesium salts of fatty acids (E470b) listed

    Halal if verified; fat source not stated

  • Smint listing only sweeteners, flavourings, maltodextrin and vegetable oil

    no ingredient raises a question

  • If you only eat certified sweets

    no Halal mark on the packs checked

Why this ruling

Smint is a sugar-free breath mint sold in a click-dispenser tin, in flavours such as peppermint and spearmint. The brand is now made by Perfetti Van Melle; it used to be made by Chupa Chups in Spain.

What's in the tin

The UK Smint XXL peppermint pack, photographed in 2023, lists sweeteners (sorbitol, aspartame, sucralose, acesulfame K), flavourings, an anti-caking agent, magnesium salts of fatty acids, and the colour brilliant blue FCF.[1] An older tin photographed in 2014 listed xylitol, aspartame, flavourings, maltodextrin and hydrogenated vegetable oil.[2] Neither has gelatin, meat or alcohol.

The one question

Magnesium salts of fatty acids are E470b, often called magnesium stearate. They can be made from vegetable or animal fat, and the XXL pack does not say which.[1] No Smint pack checked shows a Halal mark. So Smints are Halal if verified: check your tin for E470b, and if it is there, only the maker or a Halal mark can confirm the source.

For another mint with the same question, see Altoids; for other sweets in tins, see Tic Tacs.

Where you'll find it

  • Sugar-free breath mints
  • Pocket dispenser tins

Frequently asked questions

Are Smints Halal?
They have no gelatin, meat or alcohol. The UK Smint XXL lists magnesium salts of fatty acids (E470b), whose fat source is not stated, and there is no Halal mark, so they are Halal if verified.
Do Smints contain gelatin?
No. The Smint packs checked list sweeteners, flavourings and, depending on the pack, maltodextrin, vegetable oil, an anti-caking agent and a colour, with no gelatin.
What is magnesium salts of fatty acids in Smint?
An anti-caking agent, E470b, also called magnesium stearate. It can be made from vegetable or animal fat, and the pack does not say which.

Scholarly view

A mint made of sweeteners and flavourings raises no Halal question in itself. The only ingredient on a Smint pack that could come from an animal is the anti-caking agent, magnesium salts of fatty acids (E470b).

If its fatty acids are vegetable, there is no issue; if they come from animal fat, the animal's slaughter matters. With no source stated and no Halal mark, the newer packs cannot be settled from the label.

Sources

Named Islamic, certifier, manufacturer, and regulatory sources used on this page. Inline markers like [1] jump here. Retrieval dates show when we last checked the live URL. Editorial methodology.

Manufacturer / product

  1. Smint XXL peppermint (barcode 8723400796572)

    Open Food Facts (ingredient list checked on the pack photo) Retrieved

    Jurisdiction: United Kingdom

    Photo uploaded May 2023. Breath-freshening sugarfree mints with sweeteners, peppermint flavour: sweeteners (sorbitol, aspartame, sucralose, acesulfame K), flavourings, anti-caking agent (magnesium salts of fatty acids), colour (brilliant blue FCF). Perfetti Van Melle Benelux, Breda; distributed in the UK by Perfetti Van Melle.

  2. Smint Peppermint, 40 pastilles (barcode 84158833)

    Open Food Facts (ingredient list checked on the pack photo) Retrieved

    Jurisdiction: United Kingdom

    Photo uploaded November 2014: sweeteners (xylitol 90%, aspartame), flavourings, maltodextrin, hydrogenated vegetable oil. Made in Spain by Chupa Chups S.A.U.

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