Introduction:
The European Union (EU) Tobacco Product Directive (TPD) bans tobacco products with characterising flavours. The objective of the EUREST-FLAVOURS project is to support the European Commission in the specification of the methodology to support the decision on whether a tobacco product has a characterising flavour– based on a comparison with reference products. The aim of the current analysis was to propose a list of potential tobacco products, to be considered as part of a ‘reference’ group of products.

Methods:
We used a combination of data sources, including but not limited to commercial sales data and data submitted via the EU Common Entry Gate (EU-CEG) and applied a random sampling among strata approach.

Results:
The identified list of potential reference tobacco products includes leading and non-leading brands representing a broad geographical distribution of products across the EU. The potential reference products further cover a wide range of tobacco product characteristics.

Conclusions:
Using a robust methodology, we proposed two separate lists (boxed cigarettes and RYO tobacco) of potential reference products. The final list of reference products will be a valid and comprehensive representation of tobacco products currently sold on the EU-market that are currently considered as not imparting a characterising flavour.