FlavourArt Brings The Flavor
To Cannabis Liquids
F
or over thirty years, FlavourArt has been creating food
flavors for some of the world’s best known brands. Their
reputation for creating clean and complex flavors carried
over to their development of flavors for e-cigarettes in 2009.
boutique consumers that wanted access to high quality flavours
for their own personal use. Shortly afterwards, he noticed that
was there was a progressive trend of his clients using these
flavours for e-liquid, and decided to dedicate himself to this
growing industry.
CannAmerica recently had a chance to catch up with Shaun
Casey, President of FlavourArt North America, to discuss how
FlavourArt is moving into the Cannabis market with a line of
unique and specifically designed flavoring.
CannAmerica: How did the company make the decision to
enter the e-cig industry?
FlavourArt: FlavourArt started as a boutique online only flavour
manufacturer and is now a global leader in the vape industry.
We began conducting research into the safety of flavourings in
aerosol back in 2009 and released the first e-cigarette specific
research protocols under our Clearstream Air project. We are
now expanding into over 40 countries worldwide.
FlavourArt: Our customers made the decision for us! In its
infancy, the vape industry was very limited in which flavours one
could purchase, so many hobbyists chose to “DIY” their own
liquids. When FlavourArt realized that this burgeoning community
was using our products for their electronic cigarette liquid, we
decided that the pursuit of harm reduction through e-cigarettes
was a worthy business profile to work on. We immediately
decided to do the right thing and invest into research in order to
learn how to make our flavourings as safe as possible through
inhalation in this new method of vaporization.
CannAmerica: What type of products was the company
involved in before the e-cig industry?
CannAmerica: Please tell us about the flavor lab? And the
process that goes into creating flavors?
FlavourArt: Our company was founded by Massimiliano
Mancini whom had over 30 years of experience manufacturing
flavours for the food industry with the world’s largest producers.
He decided to branch out on his own and create FlavourArt for
FlavourArt: FlavourArt is a molecular level flavour
manufacturer. We source our molecular ingredients from the
best suppliers around the world and literally build our flavours
from scratch. Apart from the vast experience in flavour creation
CannAmerica: Can you give us a brief history of the company?
How it started and how long you have been in business?
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that we have, we also utilize the most modern technology for
the creation and analysis of flavours to be as close to their
natural counterparts as we can get them. If you view any of our
numerous videos on our manufacturing, you will see that this is
not a low-tech operation.
CannAmerica: How do you expect to take what you have
learned into the Cannabis industry?
FlavourArt: FlavourArt has watched the development of the
e-cigarette industry since its inception. We have been a part
of the consumer community as well as a leader in global
advocacy and government relations from the very foundation
of our company. We intend to emulate this formula and
success into the growing cannabis space. It is our belief
that the cannabis market will evolve similarly to include CBD/
THC containing liquids vaped through an aerosol device.
This noncombustible method will be highly popular for the
recreational user that is health conscious and desires other
taste profiles outside of the typical strain profiles available
today. Also, as we use many of the same terpenes that appear
naturally in cannabis, the end user can benefit from the effects
that these may have. With our industry leading knowledge in
the toxicology of flavourings used in vaping devices, we will
become a trusted resource in product development and a
solid vendor partner to our clients.
generated from the taxation of the cannabis industry will allow
consumers to finally have easy access to high quality products.
The real question is where and what formats will be developed
to meet the mass market from the counter culture grey industry
that cannabis is in today. We are trying to strategically look into
the future and plan for what we see happening as well as be
prepared for any potential eventuality.
CannAmerica: What does your company offer that others do not?
FlavourArt: Our drive has always been on being a vendor
partner that offers some more added value outside of just
selling a product. Our same focus, experience, commitment to
advocacy and research and active involvement with government
relations that we bring to the vape industry will be just as
committed to the cannabis markets as well. Our clients know
that they can reach the ownership on the phone at a moment’s
notice, and know that we are present at trade shows to increase
our understanding of their business and market trends.
CannAmerica: What types of products do you plan on offering?
FlavourArt: We are a small batch flavour house with great
capability and resources. We intend to offer our clients with
the safest and best flavouring for use in their finished cannabis
derivatives. We will provide the same dedication to safety and
advocacy that we have given to the e-cigarette industry to this
quickly growing cannabis market.
CannAmerica: For those companies who are also using your
products for e-cigarettes, how are you preparing for the FDA in
the USA?
FlavourArt: FlavourArt immediately recognized that it had
responsibilities toward harm reduction and consumer safety
back in 2008 when we first realized that our products were
being used for inhalation through an ENDS device. We
were the first and still the only flavour manufacturer to invest
heavily into research on flavours in vaping. We brought Dr.
Farsalinos and other top scientists into the e-cigarette world
and sponsored the beginnings of research into this area. We
CannAmerica: What challenges are you finding in adapting to
the cannabis industry?
FlavourArt: Though cannabis products have been around for
centuries, their acceptance in the public health field has been
slow to develop. This decade we will see that the high revenue
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were also the first to publically understand that Diketones
were an avoidable risk and removed them from our flavours
in 2010. We realized that similar to the future of the cannabis
industry, the manufacturing and sales of these products
would be regulated. We have been planning and preparing
for regulations for over 6 years and the proof is in our results
both with the TPD in Europe and the FDA regulations here
in the US. Our research division Clearstream Onward (www.
clearstreamonward.com) is constantly updating and providing
research data from top level university scientists to regulatory
boards in toxicology. We are also the most involved flavour
house in advocacy globally. I myself founded the national trade
advocacy organization in Canada called CVA in 2014. I am
quite proud of the results we are accomplishing!
with us to create new regulatory framework and legislation for
vaping as its own legal product category. Our government now
understands vaping through our efforts nationally and wants to
see adult smokers have access to a harm reduction product.
I travel to Ottawa for meetings monthly with our team at CVA
and am quite confident that Canada will lead the way in vaping
regulations around the globe within the next year.
CannAmerica: As a company who has navigated and fought
your way through years of e-cig regulations - do you worry that
you are jumping into a similar scenario with this industry?
FlavourArt: We think that the Cannabis industry has the
opportunity to learn from the hurdles that vaping markets
have been presented with. If the correct preventative
measures can be taken early and we ensure that the
products on the marketplace are founded on professional
principles of manufacturing than we can navigate these
potential difficulties in the future. Public education in the
health care field along with companies like us supporting
government relations and public affairs advocacy seems to
be a recipe to build a stable industry.
Today, we have a science team focused on providing data
to the FDA as well as the best legal team which we handpicked for their FDA specific background in Washington, DC.
We present multiple client webinars with updates on any
information we find as well as a detailed look at the data that
is going into our Tobacco Product Master Files. To the best of
our knowledge, we are the only flavour manufacturer to do so.
We are cautiously optimistic that our investments will act as a
strong evidentiary resource for our clients’ PMTA submissions’
success. On top of that, we continually invest in multiple
national and state level advocacy organizations as the fight is
far from over.
Thank you sir.
CannAmerica: As a Canadian company - any insight into the
mindset of the legal issues in your country.
FlavourArt: Through our efforts with the Canadian Vaping
Association, the Canadian government has agreed to work
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