By Kimberly Clark, Science Tuesday Editor

The girl next you has really bad breath. Like, really bad. Like, oh-my-goodness-did-you-wash-down-the-clove-of-garlic-you-just-ate-with-a-glass-of-tomato-juice bad. And even worse, she’s breathing on you.

What do you do? You can’t exactly hand her a toothbrush and toothpaste and tell her the bathroom is the second door on her right.

You can, however, take out a pack of gum, take a piece for yourself, innocently offer one to her and then pray to a higher power that she takes it.

But what happens if the garlic and tomato juice combo is seeping out of her pores instead of just her mouth? Your best bet is trying to put as much distance as possible between the two of you. And if you can’t do that, hold your breath and think of better days.

But what if it were possible to offer her something as innocent as a stick of gum, say a piece of candy, to help her with her unfortunate body odor? Dream on, right?

Well, Alpi, a Bulgarian confectionery company, and Beneo, an international Belgian company, collaborated to develop the first edible candy deodorant. They named their genius product Deo.

Deo is a rose-scented hard candy that “will not only taste good, but after consuming, will transmit an attractive rose fragrance through the skin,” according to the Beneo website.

And it gets better. Deo is sugar-free, low in calories, has a low glycemic level and won’t rot your teeth.

But does it actually work?

In 2006, Japanese researchers found that aromatic compounds, such as Deo’s main ingredient, geraniol (an antioxidant that is clear liquid and is found in roses, lavender and vanilla), can be noticeably transmitted through the skin after consumption.

Sound too good to be true? It might be.

As of now, there’s no data either supporting or refuting Deo’s deodorizing abilities. However, that hasn’t kept the candy from becoming available in European stores and in America through Amazon.com. And according to LiveScience, it’s a hit: Amazon recently sold out of its first shipment of Deo.

Science still hasn’t found a way to totally eliminate stench, but maybe the next time you’re stuck sitting next to a stinky stranger, you will be able to kindly offer him or her a Deo along with that stick of gum.