Flavor Ban

  1. Tobacco
  2. Flavor Ban
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California Health and Safety Code section 104559.5 prohibits the retail sale of most flavored tobacco products and tobacco product flavor enhancers. A flavored tobacco product is a “tobacco product that contains a constituent that imparts a characterizing flavor.” Similarly, a tobacco product flavor enhancer is “a product designed, manufactured, produced, marketed, or sold to produce a characterizing flavor when added to a tobacco product.”

A characterizing flavor is “a distinguishable taste or aroma, or both, other than the taste or aroma of tobacco, imparted by a tobacco product or any byproduct produced by the tobacco product. Characterizing flavors include, but are not limited to, tastes or aromas relating to any fruit, chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy, cocoa, dessert, alcoholic beverage, menthol, mint, wintergreen, herb, or spice.”

The statute rebuttably presumes that tobacco products are flavored if a manufacturer “has made a statement or claim directed to consumers or to the public that the tobacco product has or produces a characterizing flavor, including, but not limited to, text, color, images, or all, on the product's labeling or packaging that are used to explicitly or implicitly communicate that the tobacco product has a characterizing flavor.”

The following notices of determination have been sent to tobacco product manufacturers regarding their tobacco products.

The following letters have been sent to tobacco product manufacturers regarding their tobacco products.

The following notices of determination have been sent to manufacturers regarding their tobacco product flavor enhancers.

The following DLE Information Bulletins have been issued regarding the flavor ban.