Home Help Site Map Left Contact In the group A A Search Dutch Français About us Tobacco and tobacco products Consumer and trade Responsible business Smoking and health Work and career Media Cigarettes and smoking Tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide Measuring substances Information on ingredients Why do people smoke? Can people quit smoking? Health risks Environmental smoke Risk reduction Home > Smoking and health > Cigarettes and smoking > Information on ingredients Information on ingredients There are many misconceptions about ingredients in tobacco products. What are ingredients and what are the main questions in the ingredient discussion? What are ingredients? Ingredients have been added to tobacco since the sixteenth century. Spanish sailors are said to have used licorice as a preservative. Ingredients are added to the tobacco during the production process and have a specific function in the product. Ingredients should not be confused with the smoke components released during the combustion of tobacco. Why are ingredients added? Nutrients and flavors are added to tobacco in order to achieve the flavor characteristic of the brand together with the natural tobacco. For example, the addition of sugar absorbs the loss of sugars in the production process. Other ingredients have a technical function, such as regulating the moisture of the tobacco, preventing spoilage or as a binding agent. What about regulation? The countries of the European Union have established by law which ingredients are allowed in tobacco products. In addition, the European Directive of 2001 requires manufacturers and importers of tobacco products to disclose the ingredients in their products. In line with this obligation, British American Tobacco reports its ingredients annually to the RIVM in the Netherlands and to the Federal Public Service of Public Health in Belgium. In addition, British American Tobacco has been making its ingredients known on a voluntary basis for a number of years. You can check exactly which ingredients we add to our brands on our ingredients website . As with other consumer products, however, our brands' recipes are a precious secret that we do not want to reveal in the face of competition. While tobacco companies maintain commercial secrecy, we work with governments to provide the information necessary for meaningful legislation in this area and publish quantitative information on ingredients without disclosing our proprietary information. At www.bat-ingredients.com you will find an overview of the ingredients used by BAT per country. On this site you can also find out which ingredients are in your brand. Important Ingredient Considerations: Op basis van de huidige wetenschappelijke bevindingen dragen de ingrediënten die wij aan onze producten toevoegen, in de hoeveelheden die wij gebruiken, niet bij tot extra risico’s voor de gezondheid, noch zet het mensen aan tot roken of beïnvloedt het vermogen om te stoppen met roken; Het is niet bewezen dat sigaretten zonder ingrediënten minder risico’s voor de gezondheid met zich meebrengen. Een ‘veiliger’ sigaret bestaat niet; Er wordt geen nicotine aan tabaksproducten toegevoegd; Ingrediënten worden niet toegevoegd om het nicotinegehalte van sigarettenrook te verhogen, noch om de hoeveelheid of de snelheid waarmee nicotine in het lichaam wordt opgenomen, te verhogen; Ingredients are not added to make cigarettes attractive to children. The ingredients in some brands contain sugar, cocoa or fruit extracts. Unlike the effect on foods, these ingredients are added to the tobacco to create the specific flavor of that brand. external links BAT ingredients website We are not responsible for the content of external websites Upwards Last updated: 03/26/2012 15:45:46 GMT Accessibility Terms of Use In the group