Modified risk tobacco product

A modified risk tobacco product (MRTP) is a legal term in the United States for a tobacco product that poses lower health risks to users and the population as a whole than other products on the market, such as cigarettes (see health effects of tobacco). The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009 gives the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) broad authority to regulate tobacco products, so the FDA's power extends to approving or rejecting MRTP applications.

Without approval from the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, a tobacco company cannot legally make reduced risk claims or change warning label statements.

General Snus from Swedish Match became the first FDA-approved MRTP in October 2019; the designation is valid for five years. In December 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the marketing of 22nd Century Group Inc.'s "VLN King" and "VLN Menthol King" combusted, filtered cigarettes as modified risk tobacco products (MRTPs), which help reduce exposure to, and consumption of, nicotine for users. These were the first combusted cigarettes authorized as MRTPs, and the second tobacco products overall to receive "exposure modification" orders, which allows them to be marketed as having less tobacco than other cigarettes.