As June 22 inches closer, the day the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products’ new tobacco regulations go into effect, the agency has responded to retailer confusion regarding the ability to sell existing inventory of tobacco products labeled “light” “mild,” etc.
On Saturday, June 5, the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products issued a document titled “Draft Guidance for Industry: Use of “Light,” “Mild,” “Low,” or Similar Descriptors in the Label, Labeling or Advertising of Tobacco Products.”
This Draft Guidance states that wholesalers and retailers may distribute or sell tobacco products in their possession for which the label, labeling or advertising contains the descriptors “light,” “low,” or “mild,” or any similar descriptor after July 22,2010, “if the products were manufactured before June 22, 2010, and introduced into domestic commerce by the manufacturer, which includes an importer of finished tobacco products, before July 22, 2010,” the document states.
There is no time limit or time period for wholesalers and retailers to sell out their inventory of these tobacco products with descriptors.
This regulation on descriptor terms does not affect cigars or pipe tobacco