Modern Oral
Product Development
What are modern oral products?
Modern oral products are smokeless, oral, tobacco-free pouches that are placed between the gum and the lip to deliver nicotine* for absorption through the oral mucosa. The nicotine in the pouches is pharmaceutical grade1 and is often derived from tobacco.
What’s in Modern Oral Products?
Modern oral products are pouches containing nicotine,* water, and other high-quality ingredients, including cellulose fibers, flavoring and stabilizers. We use only food grade quality flavorings and ingredients. The pouches are composed of a permeable pouch material and a non-tobacco substrate to which nicotine and flavors are added. The outer pouch material is composed of viscose fibers bound together by chemical, heat or solvent treatment, and the non-tobacco substrate is mainly composed of water and microcrystalline cellulose, which together constitute approximately 80–90% of the pouch.2
The Science Behind Modern Oral Products
We continuously gather data to understand the health risks associated with modern oral products. Laboratory chemical studies targeting analytes relevant to oral tobacco products and from the World Health Organization Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation (WHO TobReg)3 priority list confirmed that modern oral products have toxicant levels lower than other oral tobacco products, specifically Swedish snus. In fact several toxicants found in combustible cigarettes smoke were found at levels below quantification in modern oral products.4
1 US Pharmacopeia (USP), n.d. Nicotine. Available from: http://www.pharmacopeia.cn/v29240/usp29nf24s0_m56620.html [Accessed 4 November 2021].
2 Azzopardi D, Liu C, Murphy J. Chemical characterization of tobacco-free “modern” oral nicotine pouches and their position on the toxicant and risk continuums. Drug and Chemical Toxicology. 2021:1-9.
3 Burns, D., Dybing, E., Gray, N., Hecht, S., Anderson, C., Sanner, T., O’Connor, R.,Djordjevic, M., Dresler, C., Hainaut, P., 2008. Mandated lowering of toxicants in cigarette smoke: a description of the World Health Organization TobReg proposal. Tob. Control 17, 132–141.
4 Azzopardi D, Liu C, Murphy J. Chemical characterization of tobacco-free “modern” oral nicotine pouches and their position on the toxicant and risk continuums. Drug and Chemical Toxicology. 2021:1-9.
* Nicotine in tobacco products is addictive. No tobacco product has been shown to be safe or risk free.