Jill Jones, Head of Formulation & Processing, explains how we innovate, develop, and test next generation product (NGP) flavours that satisfy consumer expectations and help us contribute to tobacco harm reduction (THR), while navigating a ever-evolving regulatory landscape.
Where Flavour Development Begins
Creating NGP flavours that resonate with adult smoker and nicotine consumers is a complex, cross-functional process that starts with understanding the broader consumer and regulatory picture.
We analyse top flavours in our markets, track wider consumer and category trends, and closely monitor regulation. Legislation can change quickly and vary significantly by country, so our innovation strategy must remain flexible.
For instance, some NGP markets allow fruity flavours; others restrict certain ingredients – or permit tobacco flavours only.
We also ensure we’re anticipating and preparing for future changes, including the potential impact of regulations like the latest revision of the European Union Tobacco Product Directive.
How Consumer Preferences Shape Flavours
Our insights tell us that taste, flavour, and overall experience are the biggest drivers of consumer liking.
Our robust approach to research and consumer co-creation within our Sense Hubs demonstrate that flavour names, expectations, and real-world experience don’t always align – and when this happens, our consumers can feel disappointed.
That means authenticity of flavours is, increasingly, a major point of differentiation.
As a responsible manufacturer, we want our flavours to deliver exactly what their name promises – while also safeguarding consumers by ensuring their naming conventions are compliant with current regulations and don’t appeal to never-smokers like youth.
The Role of Ingredients
Historically, our flavour development focused on overall taste and consumer testing.
Recently though, we’ve been diving more deeply into ingredients themselves. We’ve always used high quality ingredients, but now for some fruit profiles we’re actually incorporating components naturally found in the fruits themselves.
We believe this approach is very consumer-centric – but we’re also always careful to market our NGP with consumer safety[1] and regulatory compliance at front of mind to ensure we’re targeting the appropriate audiences (i.e. adult nicotine consumers).
Working With External Partners
We collaborate closely with several flavour houses.
These specialist external partners look beyond our category, analysing macro trends across food, drink, and other relevant sectors to identify what emerging flavours might also translate into NGP categories.
Their findings regularly feed into our flavour innovation pipeline.
Re-thinking Tobacco Flavours
There’s a common assumption that many adults who smoke only want NGP flavours that closely replicate cigarettes, but our insights show this isn’t always the case.
For instance; in the past we’ve created flavours designed to mimic the cigarette experience – but when we tested them with our consumers, they didn’t necessarily resonate.
We learned that an ‘authentic’ tobacco taste means different things to different people. Traditional tobacco notes still clearly matter, but the right level of sweetness is also critical.
The Role of Science
Our science function helps ensure our flavours are high quality, responsibly developed, rigorously tested, and fully compliant with regulations.
For instance, when it comes to ingredients, we use pharmaceutical-grade nicotine, propylene glycol, glycerol, and high-quality flavourings.
Meanwhile, we exclude ingredients classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, genotoxic, reproductive toxicants, or respiratory sensitisers.
Our thorough consumer safeguarding process includes desk-based risk assessments, internal testing, and laboratory investigations where needed.
Focusing on vapes, our product stewardship team has conducted around 1800 assessments on over 250 e-liquids over the past 12 months – which we believe helps demonstrate our thorough approach to testing.
Meanwhile, our scientists – many of whom are certified toxicologists – continuously monitor academic research to understand new trends, interrogate recent studies, and identify any data gaps.
Recently, we reviewed more than 230 peer-reviewed studies and public health reports to understand the role of vape flavours in tobacco harm reduction (THR) – which came to extremely positive conclusions.
Flavours and THR
We believe responsibly developed, manufactured, and marketed flavours have a crucial role to play in improving public health by helping adult consumers who smoke transition away from cigarettes to NGP.
In the meantime, we continue to advocate for nuanced, scientific evidence-based policy and high product standards.
Find out more about our wider innovation approach here.
Edited by Rob Taylor, Senior Harm Reduction Communications Manager.
Notes
[1] Please note that in the context of this blog, use of the word ‘safety’ refers specifically to product quality, and isn’t intended to imply that our NGP are risk-free (i.e. ‘safe’) from the perspective of absolute harm.
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