The rise of nicotine pouches: Marketed as a natural health product
Cigarettes have been around for a long time, but with technological advancement, people can now learn the harms of smoking them. Many seek the best way to quit smoking, as nicotine is highly addictive. On the other hand, tobacco business operators find a way to come up with nicotine products that can eliminate the harm in traditional tobacco products. The result can be seen in e-cigarettes and now in nicotine pouches.
Suppliers like Whitepouches provide interested buyers with multiple options of popular nicotine pouches. With numerous brands in the market offering variations, it’s interesting to see how much there are changes in nicotine products in modern days.
Popularity Spike in Nicotine Pouch
Although nicotine pouches are supposed to be a method for people who aim to quit smoking, 73% of nicotine pouch users are cigarette smokers, while 49% are nicotine vapers. Nicotine pouches’ popularity spiked, doubling unit sales between 2019 and 2022. 73% of users who started using the pouches have been reported to keep using them, which is an unusual pattern compared to other nicotine products.
One of the reasons behind nicotine pouches’ success is due to the marketing strategy. Brands meticulously promote their products as tobacco-free, not to mention they’re easy to use as they’re less noticeable than other nicotine products. This way of marketing engages a wide range of users, especially with the multiple appealing flavors available.
What’s in Nicotine Pouches?
Nicotine pouches are made from plant-based fibers, sweeteners, flavorings, water, and nicotine. The amount of nicotine varies in strength, so users can choose which one to use. Nicotine pouches don’t contain tobacco leaves, thus why brands could market them as tobacco-free products.
So, what do they use instead of tobacco leaves? Some of these nicotine pouches include synthetic tobacco-free nicotine.
Global Market Value
Nicotine pouches’ global market value reached $800 million worldwide by 2020, and they’re expected to increase by 8% by 2025. There are also estimations of the market reaching $20 billion by 2030.
The product’s sales in 2020 almost reached $3 billion and grew to around $8 billion in 2022. About 2.5 billion units were sold in 2019, steadily rising to approximately 17 billion units in 2022. The growth indicates a significant increase of around 580%. The global market value can’t be calculated by sales alone, but the number provides information on how the value might rise and seems to be accelerating. In 2022, sales record shows that 75% of sales were in the US.
Regulation
The FDA has regulated nicotine pouches and put an age restriction on the product. The Food and Drug Administration has also put a nicotine health warning and the product under pre-market assessments. To cater to nicotine pouches, the FDA has included regulations specifically for synthetic nicotine that’s a part of the product’s ingredient.
The Canadian government didn’t authorize nicotine pouches sales initially. They issued an alert to state that the product hadn’t been assessed to ensure quality, efficacy, and safety. The government was concerned that the product might contain nicotine alarmingly and harm users’ health.
Canada Approves Nicotine Pouches as a Natural Health Product
However, Health Canada now approves one nicotine pouch brand to be distributed as an over-the-counter cessation aid. BAT (British American Tobacco) subsidiary was authorized to sell the Zonnic line pouches and market them as nicotine replacement therapy. This is a move implemented as a method to help people stop smoking.
As the pouches only contain 4 mg of nicotine, they were approved by Canada’s Natural Health Products Regulation. Pouches containing nicotine higher than 4 mg would be regulated as a drug prescription under the Food and Drug Regulations.
Although Zonnic’s nicotine pouches are the first to gain approval for sale in Canada, many submissions are under the regulatory body’s review. It might take time for other brands to enter Canada’s marketplace as Zonnic’s approval came around three years after Health Canada published warnings regarding nicotine pouches use and determined the products as unfitting to be sold across Canada.
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