The primary ingredient in our smokeless tobacco products is tobacco. Besides tobacco, our smokeless tobacco products contain a variety of additional ingredients. Pursuant to applicable regulatory requirements, Philip Morris USA annually discloses the ingredients added to tobacco in our products sold in the U.S. to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. PM USA annually reports to the State of Texas product ingredients information for smokeless products sold in Texas.
We believe that the government should review the use of ingredients in tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco products, just as it does for other consumer products, with the same confidential treatment of trade secrets. PM USA believes that publicly providing detailed recipes would compromise our ability to maintain valuable trade secrets for competitive purposes. Our position on this issue is consistent with other consumer product companies. By providing
ingredients information, we have tried to strike a reasonable balance between providing detailed information about our ingredients and protecting our proprietary brand recipes, including trade secret ingredients, from disclosure to competitors. The ingredients and materials are listed in descending order by weight.
The
Family Smoking Prevention and Control Act, signed into law on June 22, 2009, grants the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco products, including the authority to assess the toxicological effects of the ingredients used in the manufacture of tobacco products. For more on PM USA's position with respect to ingredients added to tobacco products,
click here.
