LoginNicotine Pouches: Suck it and See
From supermarkets to corner shops and music festivals, all of a sudden nicotine pouches seem to be everywhere. But what are the risks – and will new legislation address them?
Richard Young, Editorial Lead Writer
Posted 26 May 2025 | JoTS Online
Content Tags: Analysis|Health and Safety|National
In February of this year, Kent Trading Standards Ports Team intercepted a shipment of 66,000 tubs of nicotine pouches which failed to comply with UK labelling regulations. Kent’s Vapes Team – a collaboration between Kent Trading Standards and Kent Public Health – have seized a further 4,000 tubs from shops in the county over the past 12 months. Nicotine pouches have also come to the attention of several other Trading Standards services, with teams including those in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Dorset removing thousands more from sale in the past year.
At present, nicotine pouches – small rectangular sachets containing a powder infused with nicotine that are designed to be tucked between the lip and the gum – occupy something of a legislative blind spot. Perhaps surprisingly, there is currently no legal restriction on their sale to minors in the UK – nor are there any restrictions on their nicotine content, their advertising or branding, or where they can be displayed in stores.
The seizures made by Trading Standards have only been possible because of non-compliance with chemical labelling rules (many of the products intercepted by the Kent Trading Standards Ports Team were labelled in Spanish) rather than legislation specifically tailored towards nicotine and tobacco products.
We could see the direction of travel, and we could see that having no age of sale was not really appropriate for a product which contained nicotine
Now however, with the Tobacco and Vapes Bill making its way through parliament, and its likely implementation later this year, that loophole looks set to be closed. Under the Government’s proposals, nicotine pouches will be included under the blanket term ‘nicotine products’ in order to ‘ensure that [they] are regulated without the need for further primary legislation’.
The Bill will restrict the legal age of sale for nicotine pouches to those aged above 18, as well as introducing restrictions on where they can be advertised and displayed.
The change in the law can’t come soon enough according to some, amid concerns that the products – some of which have packaging and flavours that appear designed to appeal to children – could help create nicotine addiction in a new generation.
As Kate Pike, CTSI joint Lead Officer for Tobacco and Vapes explains, “At CTSI we have been raising concerns about the regulatory framework around nicotine pouches for some time, including in our feedback to the post-implementation review of the Tobacco Related Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products Regulations, as well as the Kahn Review [an in-depth independent study of the UK’s tobacco control policies by Dr Javed Khan, which was published in 2022].
“We felt that specific regulations, particularly around age of sale, needed to be considered because we were concerned about the marketing towards children. We could see the direction of travel, and we could see that having no age of sale was not really appropriate for a product which contained nicotine.”
A recent paper in Nicotine & Tobacco Research found that nicotine pouch use in Britain is still relatively low, with about one in 100 youths and adults using them currently. However, the paper notes, ‘use appears to be increasing and is higher in some groups, including younger adults, males and people with experience of vaping, smoking, and use of other addictive products’. The number of adults who use, or have ever used, nicotine pouches doubled between 2020 and 2024, reaching 5.4% of those surveyed. Among those up to the age of 18, 3.3% of respondents reported ever having used them, with 1.2% using them at the moment.
One of the paper’s authors, Professor Leonie Brose, says nicotine pouches made a quiet entrance to the UK market a few years ago. “For a long time they weren’t that visible. The packaging was fairly uninteresting, whereas now you see a lot that are clearly not aimed at middle-aged people who smoke, but more at young people,” she says.
“There’s been a shift in the packaging and the range of products available. It seems to have expanded quite a bit in the past couple of years.”
In terms of nicotine pouches’ potential to create a dependency among their users, Professor Brose says, “If they’re strong enough they do deliver enough nicotine that you could develop a need to use them again, which is part of addiction.”
However, she points out, “One thing to keep in mind is that nicotine, while it is addictive, isn’t the substance that leads to cancer, lung disease or cardiovascular problems; it’s smoking which kills 70,000 people a year in England, so it is important to keep the two slightly separate. If people are using nicotine but not smoking, it’s much less harmful. Sometimes people forget that we still have a product [tobacco] which is completely legal and kills up to two-thirds of its users.”
According to Hazel Cheeseman, Chief Executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), “Nicotine pouches are less harmful than smoking and probably less harmful than vaping – although that’s harder to assess. So it’s not that they might not have a viable role as an alternative to smoking – but they’re being marketed very indiscriminately and they don’t seem to be targeted at smoking cessation. There’s lots of promotion at music festivals, and they appear very prominently in point-of-sale displays in pretty much any shop you go into these days.”
When CTSI first started raising concerns about nicotine pouches, Pike says, “the tobacco control people kept saying, ‘Oh, nobody’s using them. It’s a really small market,’ and so on – which feels a little bit like déjà vu with vapes when we raised the same concerns.
“However, the promotion of nicotine pouches has been huge. You don’t have to go very far to see a nicotine pouch advertisement. I’ve seen stands giving away nicotine pouches free of charge, which legally is perfectly OK. Morally and ethically, it’s outrageous. This is a highly addictive substance. It’s being given to children with no age checks. It’s completely inappropriate.
“More recently, footballers in particular have started using them and saying, ‘I’m using snus.’ Nicotine pouches are not snus – those are tobacco products and they’re completely illegal – but it’s a cute little word and it makes them look a little bit cool.
“The other issue is that a lot of schools have installed vape detectors and children [who previously used vapes] are now potentially using nicotine pouches to evade detection.”
As Pike points out, “It’s quite legal to provide oral nicotine to a child from the age of 12 in the form of nicotine replacement therapies. But these new pouches are being heavily promoted to children as a cool lifestyle product.”
Cheeseman agrees: “We’ve certainly got concerns about the way that they’re being promoted and the fact that they fall between tobacco regulations and vaping regulations, so there is a loophole. We need a level playing field.”
There is no system in place to be able to recall batches. There are areas here that could be firmed up. They’re screaming out for regulation
Lab tests
National Trading Standards (NTS) also has concerns about the sudden influx of nicotine pouches onto the market, as well as about the lack of specific regulations governing their content. In partnership with Kent Trading Standards and Trading Standards South East (TSSE), and with funding from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) under the Operation Joseph initiative, NTS commissioned laboratory tests of 50 samples of nicotine pouches that had been found on sale in England.
Those tests revealed that just eight of the samples met the relevant industry standard, PAS 8877:2022; 32 complied with the requirements of the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 (GPSR); and 21 met the requirements for GB CLP Regulation adoption of EU 1272/2008 Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP).
Only one product met the analytical specifications of PAS 8877:2022 and complied with both GPSR and CLP.
Chris Allen, Chief Executive at Broughton Group, which conducted those laboratory tests, says nicotine pouches first came to his attention a few years ago. “In about 2020 they started to become quite popular in the US, and we started seeing samples in the UK around 2021.
“Their nicotine strength is massively varied. In some instances, what’s on the can is not necessarily what’s in the actual pouches. There are voluntary standards that most responsible companies adhere to, which give assurances on product quality and consumer safety. But the regulation is not the same as for other nicotine-containing products. If you look at the speed [at which the market has developed], there are probably between 120 and 130 brands now on the UK market.
“With the disposable vape ban coming in in June, companies are going to be losing the revenue stream from those products and quickly getting these pouches to market to fill that gap. And that speed creates issues.”
In the course of laboratory testing, Allen says, “We’ve seen samples where you open the can and find black mould spores because of the presence of water and the lack of stability testing by some of the companies.
“I don’t think we’ve seen anything untoward from the [importers and distributors] that pay for testing – it’s when companies don’t do the testing because they don’t care about product stewardship [that there are problems]. Their differentiator is going to be either the nicotine strength or the flavour, or the way that they market it and package it. Some companies are unwilling to spend any money on product stewardship, and put it all into the marketing – or they just look to make as much profit as possible and sell the products at a relatively lower cost.
“But there are a lot of good companies doing it properly, doing due diligence, and those are typically the ones that comply with the voluntary standards. The responsible companies are learning from what’s happened within the vape industry. They’re not going crazy with the flavours, they’re not going crazy with branding.”
In terms of the branding of nicotine pouches that do present cause for concern, according to Broughton Group’s Business Development Manager, Phil Saunders, “I would say [packaging featuring the cartoon characters] Rick and Morty is fairly high up. Quite often these are combined with high strengths – we’re seeing some at 100mg of nicotine per pouch. They’re almost designed like Nerds, the sweets – they’re literally packaged in that way and contain ridiculously high quantities of nicotine, or claim to contain high quantities of nicotine.”
“It’s just not good practice to be introducing something through poor quality control or manufacturing processes,” Allen adds. “You have control over foodstuffs, for example – they’re constantly being tested for salmonella, for microbial growth. You see product recalls if there’s a problem. But that framework just isn’t in place for these products, and there is no system in place to be able to recall batches. There are areas here that could be firmed up. They’re screaming out for regulation.”
Communication and enforcement
Regulation of nicotine pouches has the potential to address some of those issues. However, as we have all seen with illicit tobacco and a host of other non-compliant products, just because something is controlled or regulated, that doesn’t necessarily mean it ceases to reach consumers – and laws are only as good as the enforcement that backs them up.
As Professor Brose points out, “I would always expect industry to find ways around legislation – that’s kind of what they do. However, the Bill covers nicotine products [in general] so it shouldn’t really be a problem if there’s a specific new product because it should always fall under that. That’s very different to the regulation that’s currently in place, which was very specific about the types of products, which made it less future-proof, not just here but in the EU as well.”
Kate Pike is optimistic about the Government’s proposals: “I’m really pleased to see that this is being addressed through the Tobacco and Vapes Bill,” she says. “Once that passes, various things come into force pretty much straight away. Not long after the Tobacco and Vapes Bill receives Royal Assent, there will be an age of sale around nicotine pouches, which is great, and there will be restrictions on advertising.
“There will also be further regulations around what’s actually allowed in them, what the packaging should look like, where and how they should be displayed in a store. It’s really good that the legislation is catching up with the market. It feels like it could have been a bit more ahead of the game because we did raise the issue some time ago – but better late than never, I suppose.”
Hazel Cheeseman believes that informing businesses about the new rules will be vital in ensuring the efficacy of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. “The crucial thing for Trading Standards, given how endemic the promotion and sale of nicotine pouches is now in supermarkets and corner shops, will be that the Government properly invests in a business communication strategy because generally speaking, if the law is clearly communicated to retailers, the bulk of them are going to comply.
“That will make it easier for Trading Standards to deal with the smaller number of retailers that either remain unaware of the law or specifically seek to circumvent it.”
The signs thus far appear to be promising – in March the DHSC announced a £10m boost for Trading Standards to tackle tobacco and nicotine enforcement, including funding for
80 new apprentice Officers. But as Cheeseman points out, continued funding will be essential: “Of course, there is a need for us to ensure that any additional enforcement responsibilities coming to Trading Standards as a result of any aspects of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill – not just nicotine pouches – are properly resourced.”
PLEASE NOTE: This content originally appeared on our standalone Journal of Trading Standards website (www.journaloftradingstandards.co.uk), which we are gradually migrating over to the Journal's new home on the CTSI website. Please bear with us while we complete this process. This will not affect the production of our Print Edition.
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Content Tags: Analysis|Health and Safety|National
