Under US law, companies cannot legally sell new nicotine and tobacco products until they've been authorized by the FDA. As of August 2026, only 48 e-cigarette products across five brands (Vuse, NJOY, Logic, JUUL, and Glas) have received Marketing Granted Orders. The FDA only authorized fruit-flavored vapes for the first time in May 2026, when it cleared four Glas ENDS products equipped with age-gating technology.
But in May 2026, the FDA announced a revised enforcement policy that effectively turned a blind eye to the sale of unauthorized fruit-flavored vapes under two conditions:
- Manufacturers must have pending PMTA applications that the FDA has already accepted for review
- Manufacturers must have provided sufficient data on whether the product is "appropriate for the protection of public health" — specifically regarding the risk of youth and nonsmokers starting to vape
This policy shift created a gray zone: products without marketing authorization could still reach store shelves as long as the manufacturer had a pending application and had submitted the required data. Reynolds' Vuse Pro flavored pods fall into this category.
The key distinction: FDA enforcement policy and FDA marketing authorization are not the same thing. The FDA's May 2026 enforcement guidance changed the regulatory environment for certain unauthorized products, but it did not grant marketing authorization. The Vuse Pro flavored pods remain unauthorized products that the FDA has simply chosen not to prioritize for enforcement action.
