It is widely understood that Swedish snus contains such miniscule TSNA levels due to the use of air cured tobacco that is subsequently pasteurized during the snus manufacturing process. I was wondering if there are any nasal snuffs that are manufactured using pasteurization. I do know that major snus producer Swedish Match also produces Taxi snuff, but I'm unable to find any information regarding its manufacturing process.
I'm not too hung up on TSNA levels of nasal snuff, but I do find this an interesting thing to think about.
Comments
Others here will know more.
With regard to snus, all of the pasteurization information I've read is rather vague. They claim that the tobacco is steam pasteurized, but I've never come across any concrete information on how this is accomplished – and at what stage the pasteurization is performed. Do they first pasteurize whole dried tobacco leaf, or does that stage come later, after the tobacco is ground? And does it matter?
Why am I even wondering any of this? Just for fun, I thought I'd order some whole (air cured) tobacco leaves from Stoker's and grind my own snuff. I thought it would also be interesting to experiment a bit with some of these leaves and attempt a pasteurized snuff, just to see if it works at all. Of course I have no idea how exactly to steam pasteurize the tobacco in my kitchen without ending up with a ruined, soggy mess. Stove top steamer? Crock Pot? Hmmm. I'm willing to make the sacrifice in the name of snuff science. I'd just really appreciate any suggestions or helpful advice.
I found this quote at snus.com:
"Most Smokeless tobacco products use a curing process that includes fermenting the tobacco to add flavor and character to the product. This fermentation in the curing process uses high heat levels and wood smoke to start fermentation of the tobacco. Swedish snus, on the other hand, is steam cured which uses a lower heat level to cure and flavor the tobacco without the need for smoking. This steam curing keeps the TSNA levels down to between .2 ppm and 12 ppm."
I also found US Patent 4355648 - Method of curing tobacco here:
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/4355648/description.html
This steam curing method patent was granted to Philip Morris USA in 2000. I wonder how different this process is from the Swedish method?
http://www.gothiatek.com/
EDIT for more info: That's Swedish Match's method for reducing harmful components from tobacco. It would be refreshing to see that from an American tobacco company.
Then again, I'm beginning to wonder if steam pasteurization has anything at all to do with low TSNA levels in snus. It could very well be that the snus manufacturers simply carefully select air-cured tobacco of an already low TSNA count, and that the pasteurization process is merely a mandated preservation technique, like any packaged food requirement. (Snus is, after all, regulated as a packaged food product in Sweden.)
Again, I'm not hung up on TSNA levels, and the last thing I'd want to do is restart that tired old argument. I just find the entire topic of snuff manufacturing techniques fascinating, and wonder what a steam-pasteurized snuff would be like, or if it would even work at all.
I'm curious of this also.
I've been reading up on the pasteurization process used in snus making, and decided to have a try at it... at least in a home-brew perspective. My goal is to take air cured tobacco and mellow it for use either in pipe, snus, or snuff.
I'm using a kitchen steamer, sort of like a crock pot. Temperature is set to 165 F. Ingredients are tobacco (1 cup), water (1 1/2 cup) and a tablespoon of kosher salt. I preheated the steamer with water, added the salt and stirred until dissolved, then added the ground tobacco. Stirring the tobacco was sort of soupy at first but it quickly absorbed a good bit of the moisture reaching the consistency of a wet brownie dough.
At three hours in, I opened it and stirred. The aroma was a clean tobacco smell, with a touch of dung freshness. It vented a bit of steam so I added a small amount of water and resealed.
I'm not sure why it's possible to pasteurize other ingredients in a few minutes, but references to Swedish snus production cites time periods of at least 12 and commonly 24 hours or more. I'm guessing that in a way this process might be more of a low temperature speed curing, perhaps as an alternative to natural sweating/fermentation. I don't think it will ferment in the literal sense (yeast enzymes ? ) because of not having sugars added. On the good side, it shouldn't be hot enough to promote breakdown of natural leaf chemicals into TSNAs, so I don't think I'm adding health risk.
My plan is to remove half of the mixture from the steamer at 12 hours, and stir in bicarbonate of soda to the half remaining in the pot. From what I've read, if the soda hits with a chemical reaction it should dump a strong ammonia smell if it works.
I can't find any reference to whether or not the alkaline mixture should be exposed to the heat. I'm guessing it should because the heat moisture keeps the porosity of the leaf open letting the alkaline do it's stuff reacting with acids and raising the ph.
I'm not sold on the idea of boosting ph to high levels to promote a freebased style nicotine kick. But after other experiments I do know that having tobacco too much on the acidic side really blows the nicotine satisfaction (all my tests with fruit flavorings have smoked like good-tasting flavored paper). I'm shooting for a middle ground.
Another benefit to the pasteurization is flavor blending. The steam forces the tobacco flavors to meld in much the same way as aging or pressure was used in olden times, or even now with some pipe tobacco blends.
Fire/smoke/flue curing the tobacco does increase the TNSA levels. My understanding is that most snus companies have all but abandoned fire cured tobacco in favor of adding smoke flavoring.
Fifty years ago, there was a huge difference between fermentation and pasteurization. Steam pasteurization took minutes, whereas fermentation could take days, months, even years. During this sweating time bacteria (and consequently, TSNAs) would grow and multiply, which is definitely not a desirable quality one would want in non-smoked tobacco.
But fermentation now has come a long, long way from the days of old. The "cooking" period is about the same either way, the main difference being in the temperature it is cooked at. The results are (in my opinion) indistinguishable from one another in flavor or quality, but steam pasteurized tobacco has a much more stable shelf life than fermented tobacco. (Being that more bacteria is killed at the source, pasteurized tobacco develops less contaminated growth sitting around at room temperature).
But one of the main reasons it's so hard to find concrete explanations of fermentation is because the term varies so widely by manufacturer and by product. When Jaap Bes talks about fermenting his snuff, he's describing a completely different scenario than a snus manufacturer would. "Fermentation" could also refer to a step in the curing process, or the casing process. Then we have the world of smoked tobacco, which is also full of its own idiosyncrasies regarding the term.
Anyways, just like any other snuff taker I am glad V2 started making snuff.
im a bit sad snuffstore.de does not seem to restock them and no ebay sells to be found
ordered a 20 pack that should last me a while but not that long ive been snuffing this up like crazy i can see a box done in a week easy even with other snuffs around
i hope they did not discontinue them that would be sad because they are great snuffs for non smokers or chewers that still want good nicotine