Millions of American children know Dots as multi-coloured, jelly-like sweets - ones that you lick and then throw at the cinema screen to see if they stick. Few know that their actual name is Mason Dots, as that's the name they were trade-marked under in 1945, the year of their introduction. If you look closely at the box, though, the Mason is still there, albeit in teeny-tiny print.

The current box boldly proclaims that Dots are a 'fat free candy', as if that was something unusual. In fact, like most sweets, they consist mainly of sugar, which, consumed in excess, is as bad for you as fat. The ingredients list is a classic: corn syrup, sugar, modified food starch, malic acid, artificial and natural flavours, sodium citrate, artificial colours, including FD & C Red 40, Yellow 5 and Blue 1. The malic acid and sodium citrate give the sweets their characteristic tartness. FD & C stands for Food, Drug, and Cosmetic, which is the place where dyes are approved for by the US Federal government.

Dots come in the myriad colours of green, yellow, orange, pink and red. The box will tell you that these translate to lime, lemon, orange, strawberry and cherry, but in point of fact there is only the vaguest of resemblance to actual fruit.

Dots are now produced by Tootsie Roll Industries, who bought the Mason division of the Candy Corporation of America in 1972. The name Mason is a simplification of the name of one of the founders of that company, Joseph Maison¹.