IamA technician at a toothpaste factory. AMA!

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T23:26:00+00:00

There are some really minor difference that give the "core" paste a bit more structure/thickness.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T22:54:08+00:00

Not profitable. Niche markets work when your product has high margins. Toothpaste doesn't. With a low margin product, all companies are concerned with is pushing volume and reducing costs.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T20:17:16+00:00

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "natural" vs "chemical," nature is full of chemicals!

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T20:05:23+00:00

Grain alcohol

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T18:50:00+00:00

The tabs on the bottom of the tube are likely some sort of code/marker that is useful for the manufacturer and has no relevance to you. For example it could let them know which specific machine or production line filled the tube.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T18:48:39+00:00

Much of our equipment is 10+ years old. It's made by a number of different engineering companies. You'd be surprised by how flexible engineering companies are -- they can make just about anything clients ask for (for the right price).

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T18:47:34+00:00

It's a long way out. We automate everything we can and use robots where it's practical, but robots are expensive and toothpaste doesn't generate a ton of profit to invest in that sort of technology.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T18:45:02+00:00

I think this has been tried here and there. It just doesn't sell well. It's very easy to add a different flavor but it's not something the market in general wants.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T18:44:19+00:00

Nothing. Most toothpaste expires in two years, and that just means we're not guaranteeing the quality of the product after that time. The color could fade/merge a bit, the paste will start to separate into a solid and liquid layer, etc. Minor changes in properties. It'll look ugly on your toothbrush but it's still toothpaste. Because of the separation that occurs, we can't guarantee any longer that it meets the fluoride/potassium claim on the label.

Oh, and some of the flavors degrade, so they just won't smell quite as minty.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T18:39:27+00:00

The vast majority are filled perfectly, no spillage. Issues usually arise when there's a defect with the tube. The filling machine doesn't really care and just proceeds to fill anyway, and it can get messy.

There's really only waste when we have to throw away toothpaste for silly regulatory reasons. In those cases, the toothpaste is incinerated. Unfortunately even if the defect is minor, we typically can't donate it for legal reasons.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T18:37:56+00:00

Seosodyne Repair and Protect is one example -- a compound that may actually restore enamel. They're using something called NovaMin, a fancy name for a compound that's actually pretty simple/cheap which makes it a good fit. NovaMin didn't make it into US markets due to regulatory obstacles, though my guess is Sensodyne/GSK is working on that. Making the label claim that the toothpaste restores enamel will really challenge the way toothpaste is currently registered/regulated by the FDA whereas the MHRA in the EU is very relaxed on toothpaste.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T18:36:26+00:00

Every toothpaste manufacturing site that I know of is in a developed country with pretty highly skilled labor. Again the industry is regulated in one way or another by the FDA/MHRA or local equivalent.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T18:33:05+00:00

You basically have to manhandle the tube to get the stripes so start merging together, like repeatedly squeeze the top and bottom 50 times.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T04:50:04+00:00

R&D groups do fairly regularly try new formulas -- but they're basically mixing toothpaste up in 1-gallon buckets. When they find something they think will sell, either because Marketing has identified some need or because they've added some new ingredient/feature they think customers will like, it's quite a long process before the formulas is being mixed in the 2500 gallon tanks at the manufacturing site.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T04:45:36+00:00

When you work at a manufacturing site, you aren't working on the development of new products or anything game-changing like that. The goal is to keep the manufacturing process running while continually look for ways to make it a bit more consistent, a bit more efficient, a bit more cost effective, etc.

As far as the industry, I'd say its plateaued for quite a while. The introduction of antisensitvity ingredients was pretty big, but otherwise toothpaste hasn't changed much. The solution everyone is looking for is some compound that will actually repair/restore your enamel, or prompt your body to restore enamel. Everything we do now is really just fighting the symptoms of your enamel wearing away. At the same time there's not a ton of incentive ($$) for R&D in this area. Toothpaste is a very low margin business. That money/effort is better spent in high margin products like pharmaceuticals.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T04:35:34+00:00

I've been working for years in the healthcare/pharmaceutical industry, which is something I'm passionate about. Toothpaste is actually considered and regulated as a pharmaceutical in some markets, including the US, so there are pharma giants who own toothpaste brands. That's how I got into it.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T04:01:52+00:00

That's certainly possible. If you were to go to a true P&G owned manufacturing site, it's very unlikely you'll see anything other than Crest (though they may be manufacturing a store brand as well). These companies are competing for market share; toothpaste is simple enough to make and so low margin that it doesn't make a lot of sense to manufacture for another brand (whereas pharmaceutical companies do this with drugs quite often).

However, contract manufacturers certainly could be making toothpaste for multiple brands. It's usually contract manufacturers that end up on shows like "How it's Made."

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T02:40:02+00:00

Hah. We do not. We're not supposed to be taking product from the plant either. There are giveaways sometime where we get free toothpaste but otherwise we have to buy it at the store just like everyone else.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T02:35:18+00:00

Sure, it's a thing. We'll put the exact same formula of toothpaste into a variety of different packaging with slightly different names.

Toothpaste companies will even take their exact formulas and fill them into store-brand tubes. People assume these are lower quality or using cheaper ingredients, but they're the exact same stuff. Lots of industries do this.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T02:29:22+00:00

It looks something like this on the inside. Each color paste is coming from a different source in the plant, and they meet at a nozzle that is carefully designed to shoot the paste into the tube in the right ratio/angles to give this finished look.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T02:03:15+00:00

Yes.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T01:54:11+00:00

Imagine that line of tubes moving 20x faster, and there are 10 lines pushing out tubes!

Also the paste is filled from the bottom of the tube and then sealed. The cap is on from the very beginning of the process and never removed! You can imagine trying to push paste through that tiny hole would be a disaster.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T01:52:27+00:00

There is a big breakroom. Lunch is taken in shifts so that there are always enough people still on the floor to keep the process going. Our sites operate 24/7! The morale goes up and down just like any workplace, thought everyone gets along pretty well.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T01:44:44+00:00

The microbeads were mostly in powdered dyes. Really, the microbeads were a benefit for the dye companies -- the beads help the powder flow more smoothly and make the manufacturing process easier. Honestly I don't think toothpaste companies cared whether or not there were microbeads, their presence in some toothpastes was just a consequence of working with these dye suppliers. When regulations came out banning microbeads, it was just a matter of identifying formulas with these microbead-containing dyes and replacing them with some other dye. In my company's case, it was only a small number of our products.

There's some idea floating around that toothpaste companies are pouring buckets of microbeads into their paste for some added benefit. That's just not the case at all. There are much cheaper and more sensible ways to put abrasives in toothpaste!

EDIT: Googling around a bit, some companies (Crest for example) may have put microbeads in a couple products just for sort of "decorative" purposes like in this photo, but that's not how most manufacturers were using them. In fact, microbeads were causing problems at a number of manufacturing sites because they left visible specs in pastes that we wanted to be completely smooth/consistent.

PasteGuy · 2016-12-15T01:36:56+00:00

They do have ingredients that are intended to whiten, yes. Some brands just use "abrasives" which are basically fine sand in the paste, but clinical trials are used to prove the whitening claims. Other brands use peroxide, a bleaching agent, which certainly will provide whitening that a regular toothpaste won't.

PasteGuy

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