Nearly Three-Quarters of Pouch Users Oppose Flavour Ban

• 73% of Haypp pouch customers oppose banning flavours.
• Just 35% said they would switch to unflavoured pouches.
• Real-world evidence indicates that flavour bans can increase smoking rates.

The findings underline the importance adult consumers place on access to flavoured alternatives to cigarettes and come amid growing evidence that removing flavours from alternative nicotine products can lead to consumers switching to cigarettes. 

The survey found that if flavours in nicotine pouches were banned, only 35% of pouch users said they would switch to unflavoured pouches.

Meanwhile, 15% said they would stop using nicotine pouches altogether, 14% said they would seek flavoured products on the black market and 3% said they would switch to cigarettes.

According to Dr Marina Murphy, Head of External Affairs UK and Scientific Affairs at Haypp:

“Flavour isn't a superficial consideration for adults who use alternative nicotine products such as pouches.  And for smokers, it can be the difference between quitting or not quitting.

Our research sends a pretty clear message. Almost three-quarters of nicotine pouch users oppose a flavour ban, while just 7% support one. And importantly, we can’t assume that if flavours disappear, people will simply switch to an unflavoured pouch. Some people may stop using pouches altogether, and some could go back to cigarettes.

The government is right not to go down the route of a blanket flavour ban. The focus should be on keeping these products away from young people.  But we shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking every problem can be solved by making everything look and taste the same.

Regulation needs to deal with the actual problem we’re trying to solve, rather than stripping away the features that make these products appealing to smokers trying to quit.

If the aim is to get people off cigarettes, we should be making that switch easier, not making smoke-free alternatives less appealing.” 

There is growing real-world evidence that flavour bans can produce serious unintended consequences. One major US study found that policies restricting flavoured e-cigarettes were associated with an unintended increase in cigarette smoking. 

Other research on vape flavour bans examined flavour restrictions across seven US states between 2015 and 2023. While vaping among high-school students declined in states that introduced flavour restrictions, youth cigarette smoking increased.  

The findings show that policymakers need to consider not simply whether flavour restrictions will reduce use of one nicotine product, but what product consumers might subsequently switch to, and whether that will have a better or worse outcome for public health.