Oral Nicotine Pouch Color Matching With Reduced Tobacco Solids
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
There is a desire for smokeless articles that resemble traditional snus in appearance but with reduced or no tobacco content, while maintaining a similar user experience.
Innovation Solution
A smokeless article comprising a pouch with a content containing a nicotinic compound, a darkening agent, and optional tobacco solids, where the darkening agent adjusts the color to resemble traditional snus, and includes fillers to maintain volume and integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If tobacco solids are reduced or eliminated in smokeless articles, then health risks and undesirable effects are minimized, but appearance and user perception similarity to traditional snus deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies color changes by incorporating a darkening agent into the filler material to alter its visual appearance. The darkening agent contains particles with a D90 particle size of 10-1000 μm that impart a dark color to the filler, making low-tobacco or tobacco-free smokeless articles visually resemble traditional tobacco-containing snus products. This resolves the contradiction by changing the color property without adding harmful tobacco solids.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If tobacco solids are reduced or eliminated in smokeless articles, then health risks are minimized, but user perception similarity to traditional snus deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The darkening agent with specific particle size characteristics (D90: 10-1000 μm) is used to modify the visual properties of the filler material. This allows the product to maintain the dark, tobacco-like appearance that users associate with traditional snus, thereby preserving user perception and acceptance while eliminating or reducing harmful tobacco solids.
3Shape
If darkening agent with large particle size (D90: 10-1000 μm) is used, then appearance similarity to traditional snus is improved, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent specifies a particular parameter range for the darkening agent particles (D90 particle size of 10-1000 μm) that optimizes the visual appearance while being feasible for manufacturing. This parameter specification balances the need for tobacco-like appearance with practical manufacturing considerations, avoiding excessively tight tolerances that would make production difficult.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a smokeless article for oral consumption comprising a pouch enclosing a content, the content comprising a filler, a nicotinic compound, 0-5 wt% tobacco solids, and from 0.05 to 5 wt% of a darkening agent, as well as a smokeless article for oral consumption comprising a pouch enclosing a content, the content comprising a filler, a nicotinic compound, 0-5 wt% tobacco solids, and a darkening agent and wherein the RGB colour values of the content are within the ranges R: 0-140, G: 0-125, B: 0-100, and the G and B values are each at most 20 higher than the R value. Also provided is a method of manufacturing the smokeless article, and use of a darkening agent to darken the colour of the content in a smokeless article.