Swedish snus, manufactured by Swedish Match, is a smokeless tobacco product that substantially differs from most other smokeless tobacco products worldwide. Swedish Match has developed a quality standard called GOTHIATEK® in order to assure the specific quality requirements of Swedish snus.

GOTHIATEK® is the result of the successful implementation of decades of research on Swedish snus. This research has lead to a unique manufacturing process and products, and for the tobacco world, unique scientific reports.

Basis for the standard is requirements on maximum allowable limits of certain undesired components in Swedish Snus. These components can be found in nature and therefore exist in various plant species, e.g. tobacco. Scientists have pointed out some of these components as potential health risks if they occur in too high concentrations. The GOTHIATEK® standard stipulates that the specific component limits must never be exceeded. The constituent standard is given below in Table I.

While tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNA) are basically specific to tobacco, the remaining constituents of the standard are also found in many foods. The standard for these non-tobacco specific compounds has limits that are comparable with the levels found in many common food items.