The US Food and Drug Administration on May 5 allowed the marketing of fruit-flavoured e-cigarettes in a first authorisation of flavoured non-tobacco vaping products, amid mounting political pressure on the agency.
The authorised pods from Los Angeles-based Glas, a small vape maker that uses technology to age-gate its devices, include flavours such as classic menthol, fresh menthol, gold and sapphire, the FDA said.
“The FDA’s rigorous, scientific review of these products found that the applicant sufficiently demonstrated that Glas’s device access restriction technology, combined with FDA-required marketing restrictions, is expected to effectively mitigate the ability of youth to use the product,” the regulator said.
Earlier in the day, the Wall Street Journal reported that US President Donald Trump over the weekend rebuked FDA Commissioner Marty Makary for not moving quickly enough to approve flavoured vapes and nicotine products.
US regulators have avoided granting licences to flavoured vapes, and the FDA has said it would continue to require a heavy burden of evidence of benefits to smokers for vape flavours that also have strong appeal to youth, such as fruit or candy flavours.
However, earlier in 2026, the agency tweaked its strict approach to flavoured vapes, a shift that follows intensifying tobacco industry lobbying and political pressure to allow more products to market.
With the latest decision, the FDA has now authorised 45 e-cigarette products for sale in the US. REUTERS
