The Center for Tobacco Reference Products has produced four new certified smokeless tobacco reference products. The products were developed under a $7.4 million, five-year cooperative agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 

The compositions of the reference products resemble smokeless tobacco products commonly sold in the United States. The reference products are not for human consumption. These products help tobacco researchers and regulators compare and acquire accurate data about smokeless tobacco products. They can also be used to generate high-quality data to help the FDA make public health decisions about the regulation of tobacco products and advance scientific understanding of the harmful effects of tobacco use. The products are among the few reference tobacco products in the world to include a certificate of analysis, containing measurements of selected chemical properties, including those recognized as harmful and potentially harmful constituents.

The four new certified reference products are representative of loose leaf chewing tobacco, moist snuff, Swedish-style snus and pouched snus and were manufactured in one run each to ensure product uniformity. They have certified characteristics to allow for proficiency testing, instrument calibration, employee/student training, method validation and other investigational purposes.

CTRP, a unit of the Kentucky Tobacco Research and Development Center in the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, will expand its program for tobacco analysis and reference tobacco products to support collaborative studies on constituent analysis and product storage and stability.

Since 1968, the center has provided reference tobacco products as standards for nonclinical, investigational purposes by tobacco manufacturers, academic institutions and contract or government laboratories. The center is committed to supplying certified standards for tobacco product research. The development and distribution of high-quality smokeless tobacco reference products by CTRP strengthens the FDA’s effort to develop the science of tobacco regulation.

For more information, visit the center’s website at https://ctrp.uky.edu/home.