Trump tapes smell off to Tic Tac

Tic Tac, maker of the sweets Donald Trump said he would use to freshen his breath before trying to kiss a woman in a widely condemned audio recording, has joined criticism of the US Republican presidential candidate.

"Tic Tac respects all women. We find the recent statements and behaviour completely inappropriate and unacceptable," the company tweeted.

US media published a 2005 recording of Trump in which he boasted about groping women, unleashing a torrent of condemnation from his party and calls for him to withdraw from the presidential race.

"I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her," Trump said in the audio, after spotting the actress who had been sent to greet him at the studio where he was making a guest appearance on a soap opera.

"You know I'm automatically attracted to beautiful... I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything," Trump continued.

Tic Tac is not the first sweet company to distance itself from Trump.

Skittles-maker Wrigley also responded with distaste when his son, Donald Trump jnr, used a photo of the sweet to illustrate the danger he said refugees posed to the country.

"If I had a bowl of skittles and told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That's our Syrian refugee problem," he tweeted last month.

"Skittles are candy. Refugees are people," a Wrigley's spokeswoman said in a statement at the time. "We don't feel it's an appropriate analogy."

- DPA,AAP