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As Special As It Gets
Genia filters will make their commercial debut in Swiss company Koch & Gsell’s tobacco and hemp cigarettes
After Tobacco Asia broke news about the brand new, fully biodegradable filter material Genia, invented and patented by German company McAirlaids GmbH in a featured story last year (vol. 22 no. 2), it created quite some buzz among our readership.
Several tobacco companies reportedly contacted McAirlaids, expressing strong interest in this potentially industry-changing product. “Over the past 12 months we have been running trials with several cigarette and filtered cigarillo manufacturers, small and large, in Europe and Asia,” confirms Katja Selle, McAirlaids’ sales director.
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Since Genia consists of 100% pure cellulose and is produced without any glues or binder resins, it behaves slightly differently to conventional cellulose acetate tow (CAT). In order to derive useable cigarette filter properties with the new material, some of the tobacco companies underwent up to three testing stages, including end-consumer testing. “But once the right filter specifications had been determined, consumer panel feedback has been positive in all cases so far,” asserts Selle.
While many of these trials are still ongoing at press time, the first company has already picked up on Genia nonetheless. In July 2017, small Swiss tobacco manufacturer Koch & Gsell created headlines when it introduced the world’s first commercially produced hemp cigarette as part of its proprietary Heimat (homeland) brand range. Starting this summer, the Swiss outfit will use Genia filters for all these hemp cigarettes.
According to Selle, “Koch & Gsell plans to eventually adopt Genia for its entire Heimat range,” effectively phasing out CAT altogether. “And we expect a couple of further launches [for Genia filters] to happen elsewhere later this year as well.”
- Thomas Schmid and Katja Selle