In the continuing quest for Reduced Harm Nicotine Delivery products, there has been a dramatic increase in the types of products available to the consumer. Many of these products are not regulated and there is little information available to evaluate the reduced harm potential.

One of these product classes is Tobacco-Free Nicotine Pouches (TFNP) or Modern Oral Nicotine Pouches (MONP). In 2022 we presented results of target compound analysis of a selection of these products. In this work, we have expanded the original scope to include Non-Targeted Analysis of a cross section of flavoured products readily available on the market.

Products of varying flavour descriptions were extracted into ethanol and analysed using GCMS full scan with Mass Hunter deconvolution, followed by spectral matching using the NIST 2017 MS library.

There was not always overlap between products as far as the flavour profiles were concerned. For example, there were four cinnamon flavoured products and, although most contained high levels of cinnamaldehyde, as expected, two of the products also contained significant levels of coumarin and butylated hydroxy toluene (BHT). Furthermore, some compounds found in many of the products at low levels, were found at high levels in other products. Benzyl alcohol, and benzyl salicylate, for example, were observed in low levels across many products (< 2 µg/g) and were found at approximately 400 µg/g in at least one product. Although many of the compounds identified are considered natural flavours, they could be considered at least mild irritants when present at high levels.

Guidelines to determining best practices and product safety should be established, and screening of products in tandem with toxicological evaluation must be performed to ensure the use of these products does, in fact, reduce potential harm.