Elfbar and Lost Mary to discontinue sweet flavours; Call for full licensing regime for vape sales

Leading disposable vape brand Elfbar and its sister brand Lost Mary have decided to drop dessert and soft drink flavours.

The flavours have often been criticised as particularly appealing to young people.

“At Elfbar, we have been reviewing and continue to review our flavour descriptors. As such, we are renaming and phasing out some flavours from our products,” an Elfbar spokesperson commented.

“This is a continuation of our efforts to limit their appeal to children, while being mindful that flavours play a critical role for adult smokers and ex-smokers on their journey to quit smoking. We are also planning to apply this flavour descriptor review to Lost Mary and will provide updates accordingly.”

The brand has also called for a full licensing regime for vaping as the government is consulting on potential restrictions on the display of, colours, flavours, and availability of vaping products, along with a sales ban on disposable vapes.

“We believe that the governments across the UK should move forward with introducing a full licensing regime for vaping – and that crafting a framework akin to the one for alcohol is the right course of action,” the spokesperson said.

“It is not acceptable that vapes are sold widely in premises that have little or no experience of selling age restricted products. Vapes are a smoking cessation tool for use by smokers and ex-smokers.”

The brand noted that such a regime would help reduce the potential of children getting access to vapes, besides making it easier for the authorities to better police the sale of vaping products.

“Furthermore, we believe that it would have benefits in tackling the growing illicit vape market and help with driving increased rates of vape recycling,” the spokesperson added.

The brand claimed that such a move has the overwhelming support of the public, with research conducted last month showing 83 percent of the adult UK population endorsing this approach.

“We will be making our views on licensing known to [the] government in our submission to the consultation alongside other suggestions, including calling for a significant increase in the sanctions for those found to be selling to children,” the spokesperson said.

Last month, Supreme PLC said it will immediately assess packaging across its entire 88vape range, from disposables to 10ml liquids, to ensure the use of colour is very limited (used only to differentiate one stock item from another) and the packaging is plain and uniform, following the government consultation on vaping. It also decided to simplify naming conventions of all flavours across the 88vape range.