What is snus?

The short definition

Snus is moist, finely ground tobacco used in the mouth. It isn't smoked, chewed or sniffed. A pinch, or a ready-made pouch, sits between the upper lip and the gum. Swedish Match, the largest Swedish producer, describes its snus as made from ground tobacco and “used under the upper lip,” in contrast with American moist snuff, which goes under the lower lip.

Swedish law draws the line clearly. The Swedish Food Agency (Livsmedelsverket) defines snus as a product that contains tobacco and is used in the mouth, and puts products used the same way without tobacco in a separate group it calls “snus-like products.” So by Swedish definition, a tobacco-free nicotine pouch is not snus, whatever the can says. That distinction runs through everything else on this page.

What snus is made of

According to Swedish Match, the main ingredients besides ground tobacco are water, ordinary cooking salt and sodium carbonate, with flavourings and moisture-preserving agents added. The tobacco is ground and sieved into coarse, intermediate and fine grades, then mixed with water and salt in closed blenders and heated. Swedish Match calls that heating step pasteurisation. After cooling, the remaining ingredients go in.

Portion snus is the same mixture measured into small pouches. Swedish Match describes the portions being inserted into a cellulose fibre tube, sealed and cut apart. Loose snus (lössnus) skips the pouch and is shaped by hand.

Because it's a moist product, snus is perishable. Swedish Match tells consumers to keep it in a refrigerator, and gives a shelf life of 14 weeks for moist loose snus and 20 weeks for moist portion snus when stored that way.

How snus is regulated in Sweden

Snus sits in an unusual legal spot. Livsmedelsverket states that snus isn’t food under the EU’s general food law definition, but Sweden’s Food Act treats it as equivalent to food so that selected food rules can apply. The detailed rules are in the agency’s regulation LIVSFS 2024:2 on snus, snus-like products and chewing tobacco. Among other things it requires that ingredients mustn’t pose a risk to human health (tobacco and nicotine are regulated separately), and that packs sold to consumers carry the designation “snus.”

Age limits, warning labels and the rules for tobacco-free nicotine products sit in other Swedish legislation, which Livsmedelsverket points to as well. In short: food-style rules on ingredients and hygiene, tobacco-style rules on sale and labelling.

Is snus legal in the UK and the EU?

No, apart from Sweden. EU law prohibits the sale of “tobacco for oral use,” defined in the Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU) as tobacco products for oral use, other than those meant to be inhaled or chewed, in powder or particulate form, “particularly those presented in sachet portions or porous sachets.” That describes snus exactly. Article 17 of the directive tells member states to prohibit it, “without prejudice to Article 151 of the Act of Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden.” Article 151 is Sweden’s derogation, and Sweden is the only EU country where snus can be sold.

The ban is older than the current directive. It was introduced by Council Directive 92/41/EEC of 15 May 1992, which applied from 1 July 1992. Sweden became an EU member on 1 January 1995.

UK readers: the UK prohibits it too. Regulation 17 of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 reads, in full, “No person may produce or supply tobacco for oral use.” The regulations define tobacco for oral use in the same terms as the EU directive, including products in a sachet portion. Nicotine pouches that contain no tobacco fall outside that definition, which is why you can find them in UK shops when you can’t find snus.

Outside the EU, Norway is a snus market too: Swedish Match lists Scandinavia, including Norway, as a main market for its snus, and notes that snus can’t be sold in Denmark.

Snus, white snus and nicotine pouches

Three terms get mixed up constantly. Here’s how they separate:

• Snus. Contains tobacco. Brown, moist, sold loose or in portions. Legal to sell in Sweden, not in the rest of the EU or the UK.
• White portion snus. Still tobacco snus, in a portion made to look whiter. Swedish Match describes its white portion technique as giving pouches a whiter, fresher appearance with the same moisture content as traditional portion snus, and a pouch that runs less. The full terminology story is on our white snus explainer.
• Nicotine pouches. No tobacco leaf. The US Food and Drug Administration describes them as fibre pouches containing nicotine “chemically synthesized or extracted from tobacco leaf,” without “cut, ground, powdered, or leaf tobacco itself.” Sold internationally, often under the name white snus.

If you want the two side by side (contents, moisture, storage and the ZYN question), read snus vs nicotine pouches. A retailer’s view of the same split, with product examples, is in nicopodstore’s guide to tobacco-free pouches versus traditional snus.

Where snus came from, briefly

Swedish Match records the first mention of snus in Sweden in 1637, in a customs document. At that time snus meant nasal snuff, a fashion of the aristocracy. In the early 1800s Swedes began placing a pinch under the lip instead, and in 1822 Jacob Fredrik Ljunglöf launched the brand that became Ettan, which Swedish Match calls Sweden’s oldest snus brand. Portion-packed snus arrived in 1973. The full timeline, with sources, is on the snus history page.

A note on health

Snus contains nicotine, which is addictive. When the EU kept its ban in 2014, it gave the reason in the directive itself: to prevent the spread of “a product that is addictive and has adverse health effects.” This site doesn’t give health advice. On the pouch side, the NHS says nicotine pouches “are not licensed stop smoking products in the UK.” If you’re new to the pouch side of the category, nicopodstore has a plain explainer on what nicotine pouches are.