system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does Febreeze/similar products "remove odors" like they claim? Is this actually true or does the spray just mask the smell?

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gpt
They are pretty clever. 

They don't remove the odor at all. The sprays contain beta-cyclodextrin which is a starchy ring shaped sugar molecule. You spray it on the stink the water dissolves the stink. The beta-cyclodextrin then binds and engulfs the stinky particles. 

The stinky particles never really go away merely that when you sniff them and it goes up your nose your smell receptors can't bind to the stink particle due to it being surrounded by the beta-cyclodextrin. So if you spray it on a poop stain there are still poo particles going up your nose but they can't bind with your nasal smell receptors thus the stink seems to be gone.