A market left to regulate itself
When legislation lags behind reality, we rely on industry to police itself. In the case of nicotine pouches, in the absence of regulation the market has been entirely shaped by manufacturers and the retailers who stock their products.
Nicotine pouches exist in purgatory, sold extensively across the UK in stores and online, yet they are at present, entirely unregulated.
Lack of any kind of regulatory framework has meant a key product aspect such as nicotine content (strength) has been left to the market to decide. But this is how the free-market works right?
Supply and demand tends to mean that the products that survive tend to be the ones that consumers really want. However, when it comes to a product category like novel nicotine, an imbalance of information means that unfortunately consumers don’t always know what’s appropriate and safe.
A new category finding its limits
In the 3 years I’ve been writing about (and using) nicotine pouches - I’ve seen widely varying product strengths - as you would expect from a new market, still adjusting to achieve fit.
This is to be expected from a new and novel product - but the potential impact on health does demand some guard rails.
Pouch brands from big tobacco have always been relatively cautious in strength - but big public companies have big public liability.
However, much like the vape market, the barriers to entry are relatively low - and nicotine pouches brands and manufacturers have popped up all over the globe.
The strength arms race
This has given rise to a gold rush, with new market entrants frequently appearing and competing for market share. One of the product characteristics where they can differentiate their products is strength.
This has inevitably led to a rise in products which contain nicotine levels well in excess of what’s needed to make an effective product.
The strongest pouch I’ve ever sampled for review was 150mg…
An entire 20 pack of cigarettes contains perhaps 200 to 300mg total, of which 20-30mg is absorbed.
Nicotine absorption rate from a pouch is between 30 and 40 percent. So a 150mg pouch would be 45-60mg.
That’s some rough maths using averages you could argue about, but a 150mg pouch is at least equivalent to an entire 20 pack. I don’t need any dodgy math to validate my own experience however, a 150mg pouch made me very unwell very quickly and I have a lifetime’s experience with nicotine.
These ridiculously super strength products have thankfully started to fall a little out of fashion, but you’ll still find plenty of products with a 50mg strength.
If not government, then who?
So in this Wild West gold rush, who’s policing what’s safe for consumers?
At present it’s not the government - it’s retailers.
Responsible sellers will at a minimum age-gate their sales. Perhaps out of moral obligation… perhaps because often payment processors require it… but whatever the reason there are at least some barriers to youth purchases on major online stores.
So what about product strength? Is a retailer really going to limit their product offering, and potentially miss out on customers when there are no laws telling them to do so?
Well yes, there’s at least one -
Dr. Marina Murphy the Senior Director of Scientific Affairs at Haypp Group recently published an article on PoliticsHome describing the retail groups self-imposed policy of capping the strength of the nicotine pouches they sell at 20mg.
And this isn’t just an arbitrary number.
Why 20mg actually makes sense
Haypp’s 20mg cap is based on how nicotine pouches actually work. At that level, a pouch already delivers a nicotine hit that’s competitive with a cigarette. Going higher doesn’t meaningfully improve switching outcomes. It just increases the likelihood of misuse, adverse effects, and people having a bad first experience with what should be a safer alternative to smoking.
This is the opposite of the point.
There’s also nothing fringe about this position. Both the Swedish Institute for Standards and the British Standards Institution recommend an upper limit of 20mg per pouch. This isn’t about restricting access or infantilising adults. It’s about setting a sensible ceiling that reflects real-world use, not marketing nonsense or social media views.
Regulation by default
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will give the UK government the power to step in and set limits like this. Until then, retailers are effectively being asked to regulate a market that Parliament has left in limbo.
It’s not ideal. But it is where we are.
This is also why I’ve been pushing the 20 is plenty message through my work as UK Director of Considerate Pouchers. The aim isn’t prohibition or moralising adult nicotine use. It’s about keeping nicotine pouches credible as a harm reduction product, and stopping the category sliding into an arms race that ultimately harms consumers and invites regulation by backlash rather than evidence.
So when a major retailer like Haypp voluntarily caps strength at 20mg, knowing full well it may lose customers to competitors selling ever stronger products, that tells you something. This isn’t just virtue signalling. It’s risk management, consumer protection, and a bit of grownup thinking in a category that hasn’t always had much of it.
Enough to help adult smokers switch. Enough to keep the market competitive. And enough to stop the whole thing turning into a pointless strength arms race that nobody asked for.
