In the United States, Smarties are a type of tablet candy produced by Smarties Candy Company, formerly known as Ce De Candy Inc., since 1949.[1][2][3][4][5] Smarties are produced in factories in both Union Township, New Jersey, and Newmarket, Ontario.[2] The candies distributed in Canada are marketed as Rockets, to avoid confusion with Smarties,[2][6] a chocolate candy produced by Nestlé which owns the trademark in Canada.[7] The New Jersey factory produces approximately 1 billion rolls of Smarties annually,[8] and in total the company produces over 2.5 billion in a year.[6][9][10]
One individual candy is a biconcave disc in shape, with a diameter of roughly 1 cm (0.39 in) and a height of roughly 4 mm (0.16 in). Larger ones have a diameter of 2.5 cm (0.98 in) and are about 6 mm (0.24 in) thick. Smarties come in combinations of colors within their wrapped rolls; these include white and pastel shades of yellow, pink, orange, purple, and green.[11] Each color's flavor is different. They are usually packaged as a roll of 15 candies.[2][9] Smarties candies are peanut-free, gluten-free, fat-free, and dairy-free.[1][9] All Smarties candies are free of animal products and therefore vegan.[12][13]
After World War II, the Dee family bought pellet machines and repurposed them to make candy.[1][6][14]
This gave the candy its resemblance to tablet-style pills in shape and texture.[6] When sugar prices spiked in the 1970s, Ce De Candy switched from sucrose to dextrose.[6]
In 2004, Ce De Candy Co., Inc., in conjunction with Rock The Vote, manufactured 500,000 special edition Smarties with "Rock the Vote" on the wrapper.[15] A 3.5-ounce Theater box was released in 2009, with a retro look on the boxes.[16] In 2011, Ce De Candy Company, Inc. changed its name to Smarties Candy Company.[2] In August 2011, the company confirmed that Smarties are vegan.[17]
Snorting controversy
In January 2011, a middle school in Portsmouth, Rhode Island reported that its students had started to crush the Smarties into a fine powder and inhale them, mimicking a form of cocaine consumption, following a YouTube trend. The administration sent emails regarding the incident, and rumors started circulating that you could get maggots growing in the nostrils, feeding on the powdered Smarties. These rumors have been proven false, but real health effects could be scarring of the nasal cavity, nosebleeds, irritation, and a possible risk of allergic reaction. A similar trend also observed at the same time at the Portsmouth school was "smoking" the Smarties, taking in the dust orally and blowing it out, resembling cigarette smoke. Portsmouth resident John McDaid, who has an eighth grader at Portsmouth Middle School, told CBS News "The story here is how this school responded in a way that’s inappropriate to my mind. If your goal is to keep kids from dangerous drugs, the worst thing you can do is make your own advisories look like a joke."[18]
Production
The Smarties Candy Company operates two factories that produce Smarties 24 hours a day for five days a week, amounting to over 70,000 pounds (around 32,000 kilograms) per day. After mixing the dry ingredients they are pressed into tablets and then stacked and rolled into a Smarties wrapper for packaging.[19]
Each package contains an assortment of pastel colors [11][21] in the following flavors:[22]
White: Orange cream
Yellow: Pineapple
Pink: Cherry
Green: Strawberry
Purple: Grape
Orange: Orange
Smarties Candy Company also produces "X-treme sour" and "tropical" varieties of Smarties[21][23][full citation needed] as well as lollipops in three sizes. In October 2015, the company launched Smarties 'n Creme, which are quarter-sized candy tablets with Smarties flavor on one side and creme flavor on the other.[1][9]
^Kristen Ryan (Fall 2014). "Get Smarties!". Matters Magazine. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
^Turcsik, Richard (1 February 2005). "Targeting the sweet tooth: creative use of the category's impulse nature can help speed up supermarkets' slowing candy sales. So can getting new products in front of consumers quickly". Vol. 71, no. 2. pp. 1094–1088.
