The characterising flavours of tobacco

Smoking leads to severe health problems for both smokers and their environment
(1, 2). Most smokers become addicted to tobacco during secondary school, with
determinants of youth smoking varying from individual factors to wider social
influences (3, 4). One of these determinants is the so-called product
attractiveness of tobacco products, therefore, tobacco product attractiveness
and its impact on dependence should be taken into account when considering
regulatory measures, as tobacco products are commonly made to be attractive in
order to encourage their use (5, 6).
Attractiveness can be defined by intrinsic sensory attributes such as taste,
smell and mouth feel (7) and extrinsic factors such as marketing, packaging and
pricing (8).
The current study focuses on intrinsic factors, in particular additives that
give a characterising taste and smell to tobacco products. Studies have shown
that in addition to the pharmacological effects of nicotine, sensory product
characteristics such as taste, smell, and respiratory tract sensations (mouth
feel, impact) play a major role in smoking satisfaction, product acceptance,
and the desire to smoke (9, 10).
Regarding taste and aroma, cigarette smokers identify flavour as an important
factor in the pleasure derived from smoking and for their choice of cigarette
brand (11-13). Dutch survey data also indicate that taste and smell are
important determinants of brand preference among adolescent smokers (14). For
instance, the sweetness of cigarette smoke appeared closely related to
satisfaction and pleasantness (15).
Many chemosensory studies are performed by the tobacco industry with the aim to
control sensory characteristics in a favourable way (16). For example,
additives referred to as ameliorants such as sugars, cocoa and liquorice (17)
are used to reduce sharpness and irritation caused by tobacco smoke as this
positively influences adolescent product perceptions (18), and may facilitate
experimenting and smoking initiation (5, 19).
To protect the health of European citizens, in particular, to reduce the
smoking prevalence among young people, the new EU Tobacco Product Directive
prohibits cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco having a characterising flavour
other than one of tobacco. Examples of flavours added to tobacco are fruit
flavours, chocolate and menthol. The new EU Tobacco Product Directive aims to
discourage young people, attracted by flavoured products, from taking up
smoking.

Some countries already implemented legislation aiming at decreasing product
attractiveness via flavour regulation, for example upper limits are set for
aroma additives in France and in Canada many different additives are
prohibited. However clear methods to determine whether a tobacco product
imparts a characterizing flavor are yet to be developed. From chemical research
we can derive information about the natural ingredients and additives of
tobacco, which comes down to a list of 460 additives (20). However it is
difficult to assess the combined and individual effect of each additive on the
flavour of tobacco, therefore the focus in this study is on the characteristics
of the entire product. Characterising flavour is defined by the European
Commission (Consumer, Health & Food Executive Agency) as * a clearly noticeable
smell or taste other than one of tobacco, resulting from an additive or a
combination of additives, including, but not limited to, fruit, spice, herb,
alcohol, candy, menthol or vanilla, which is noticeable before or during the
consumption of the tobacco product;* In this definition, *tobacco* means:
*leaves and other natural processed or unprocessed parts of tobacco plants,
including expanded and reconstituted tobacco.*
Characterising the flavour of a tobacco product is subjective; therefore it
requires sensory information from consumers and/or trained judges. In order to
do so, we will compare brands with so-called characterising flavours to brands
without characterising flavours, including cigarette brands with no additives.
Comparison will be done by a semi trained panel making a descriptive
flavour/odour profile of each roll-your-own of cigarette brand included in this
study.

Primary Objective: To determine whether a tobacco product (cigarettes and
roll-your-own tobacco) imparts a characterising flavour/odour.

Secondary Objective: Do the characterising flavours/odours of the tobacco
products as determined through panel testing correspond with findings of
chemical analyses of the same tobacco products.
If the chemical analysis of tobacco is in line with the flavour profile of the
expert panel, the expert panel could in the future be replaced by chemical
analysis to determine cigarette flavour. Performing a chemical analysis is
beneficial in many ways, as this technique is not harmful for people, not
subjective and less time- and cost- intensive.

This study falls within the classification of sensory research and aims to
determine the characteristic flavours of tobacco. A descriptive flavour
profiling analysis will be performed by an expert panel. The study consists of
three phases, a screening phase, training phase and test phase. All study
sessions will take place in sensory booths at Wageningen University
(Biotechnion building 307, second floor). The study population consists of
smokers and non smokers. Included panel members have to be available for at
least 3 months.

The study phases:
- Phase I: Screening
- Phase II: Training
- Phase III: Testing

Phase I: Screening of potential candidates
All potential participants will be screened on basic olfactory skills. The
screening consist of 2 sessions, during the first 1hour screening odour
recognition and the ability to rate odor intensity will be measured. During the
second screening olfactory sensitivity will be measured with use of the sniffin
sticks, duration will be approximately 2 hours.

Phase II: Training of selected panel members
This phase consist of 14 training sessions in which participants need to be
committed to two, 1.5 hour training sessions a week, for seven consecutive
weeks. During the training sessions panel members will rate different kinds of
cigarettes and will judge flavour attributes through smelling unburned Tobacco
products.


Phase III: Testing of different tobacco products
During the testing phase panel members will evaluate tobacco in the same manner
as practiced during the training phase (training 7) In total we will include
twenty tobacco brands including roll-your-own tobacco and filter cigarettes and
one reference (pure tobacco). These tobacco products will be tested in a
randomized block design. In a single session the 18 panel members will only
evaluate ten tobacco products. However, the tobacco products will be evaluated
in triplicate. Therefore, the panel members must attend six sessions to
evaluate all the samples in triplicate.

not applicable

The negative health effects of smoking are widely known (1, 27). Therefore the
assessment of the Tobacco products will be done by smelling unburned tobacco
products.