i fell through the hole in the middle

Yesterday I got a bag of lifesavers at the store. I thinking about how they used to have the tubes of the "centers" of lifesavers. I haven't seen those in soo long (I haven't even bought lifesavers on a long time) but the tubes were very neat. I mean the little hole the tiny little pieces came out of and everything. It got my wondering to the question I always used to ask about these "middles". Are they truly the center of the lifesavers they take out, or are they merely created just for the purpose of being the centers? Makes me think about donut holes to. I mean do they create them or just use the centers. It really bothers me that if they aren't the "true centers" when are they just wasting it. What is the center, where it it come from, and why does it have to be missing all the time.