Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Oct 27;19(21):13953.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph192113953.

Expanding the E-Liquid Flavor Wheel: Classification of Emerging E-Liquid Flavors in Online Vape Shops

Shaoying Ma  1 , Zefeng Qiu  2 , Qian Yang  1 , John F P Bridges  3 , Jian Chen  2 , Ce Shang  4
Affiliations

Expanding the E-Liquid Flavor Wheel: Classification of Emerging E-Liquid Flavors in Online Vape Shops

Shaoying Ma et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: Electronic cigarettes are the most popular tobacco product among U.S. youth, and over 80% of current youth users of e-cigarettes use flavored e-cigarettes, with fruit, mint/menthol, and candy/sweets being the most popular flavors. A number of new e-liquid flavors are currently emerging in the online e-cigarette market. Menthol and other flavored e-cigarettes could incentivize combustible tobacco smokers to transition to e-cigarette use.

Methods: From February to May 2021, we scraped data of over 14,000 e-liquid products, including detailed descriptions of their flavors, from five national online vape shops. Building upon the existing e-liquid flavor wheel, we expanded the semantic databases (i.e., key terms) to identify flavors using WordNet-a major database for keyword matching and group discussion. Using the enriched databases, we classified 14,000+ e-liquid products into the following 11 main flavor categories: "fruit", "dessert/candy/sweets", "coffee/tea", "alcohol", "other beverages", "tobacco", "mint/menthol", "nuts", "spices/pepper", "other flavors", and "unspecified flavor".

Results: We find that the most prominent flavor sold in the five online vape shop in 2021 was fruit flavored products, followed by dessert/candy/other sweets. Online vendors often label a product with several flavor profiles, such as fruit and menthol.

Conclusions: Given that online stores market products with multiple flavor profiles and most of their products contain fruit flavor, the FDA may have issued marketing denial orders to some of these products. It is important to further examine how online stores respond to the FDA flavor restrictions (e.g., compliance or non-compliance).

Keywords: ENDS; FDA; e-cigarette; e-liquid; electronic cigarette; electronic nicotine delivery systems; flavor; regulation; tobacco; vaping.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure A1
Figure A1
An Example of E-liquid Flavor Filters, i.e., Flavor Options of E-liquids Sold by Store 1 (Location of E-liquid Filters Highlighted by Square Bracket).
Figure 1
Figure 1
Frequencies of E-liquids Containing a Certain Flavor (Product Total N = 14,477).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Frequencies of E-liquids Based on Flavor Description (Product Total N = 14,477).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Top Seven Flavors in Each Online Vape Shop by Frequency Counts (Subfigures (a–e) show the top seven flavors by frequency counts in stores 1–5 respectively).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Top Seven Flavors in Each Online Vape Shop by Frequency Counts (Subfigures (a–e) show the top seven flavors by frequency counts in stores 1–5 respectively).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Top Seven Flavors in Each Online Vape Shop by Frequency Counts (Subfigures (a–e) show the top seven flavors by frequency counts in stores 1–5 respectively).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Park-Lee E., Ren C., Sawdey M.D., Gentzke A.S., Cornelius M., Jamal A., Cullen K.A. Notes from the Field: E-Cigarette Use Among Middle and High School Students—National Youth Tobacco Survey, United States, 2021. Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. 2021;70:1387–1389. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7039a4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cornelius M.E., Wang T.W., Jamal A., Loretan C.G., Neff L.J. Tobacco Product Use Among Adults—United States, 2019. Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. 2020;69:1736–1742. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6946a4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Truth Initiative E-Cigarettes: Facts, Stats and Regulations. [(accessed on 27 November 2021)]. Available online: https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/emerging-tobacco-products....
    1. U.S. Food & Drug Administration Vaporizers, E-Cigarettes, and Other Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) [(accessed on 27 November 2021)]; Available online: https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/products-ingredients-components/vap....
    1. Balfour D.J.K., Benowitz N.L., Colby S.M., Hatsukami D.K., Lando H.A., Leischow S.J., Lerman C., Mermelstein R.J., Niaura R., Perkins K.A., et al. Balancing Consideration of the Risks and Benefits of E-Cigarettes. Am. J. Public Health. 2021;111:1661–1672. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2021.306416. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types