GB 15269-2025Cigars (English PDF)

Foreword

This document is in accordance with the provisions of GB/T 1.1-2020 "Guidelines for standardization work Part

1.Structure and drafting rules for standardization documents" Drafting. This document replaces GB/T 15269.1-2010 "Cigars Part

1.Technical Requirements for Product Classification and Sampling", GB 15269.2-2011 "Cigars Part

1 Scope

China's mandatory product standard for cigars - the document that defines what may be sold as a cigar in a market where tobacco is a state monopoly and the category is growing. It defines the terminology of cigars, gives the product classification, specifies the sensory technical requirements and the packaging and labelling requirements, sets the provisions on storage and transport, and describes the inspection methods. It applies to the cigars manufactured and sold in China. The classification is the part with commercial weight, because it decides what a product may be called: the separation of handmade from machine-made cigars, and the distinction by the construction of the filler, binder and wrapper, are what distinguish a premium product from one that merely resembles it, and the definitions in this standard are what a claim on a box has to satisfy. The technical requirements are largely sensory, which is unusual for a mandatory standard and unavoidable here: appearance, construction and firmness, the draw, the burn and the ash, and the aroma and taste, assessed by a panel under prescribed conditions - so a good part of the document is given over to how that assessment is organised, since a sensory result is only defensible if the panel, the sample preparation and the scoring are themselves specified. To those are added the packaging and labelling requirements, which in tobacco carry the mandatory health warnings and the monopoly markings, and the storage and transport provisions, which matter more for cigars than for cigarettes because the product is alive: humidity outside a narrow band cracks the wrapper or lets it mould, and both are irreversible. Issued on 28 February 2025 and in force since 1 March 2026.

This document defines the terminology of cigars, gives product classification, specifies sensory technical requirements, packaging and labeling requirements, and storage and transportation. The inspection method is described. This document applies to cigars.

2 Packaging and Labeling", GB 15269.3-2011 "Cigars Part

3.Technical Requirements for Product Packaging, Rolling, Storage and Transportation", GB 15269.4-2011 "Cigars Part

4.Sensory Technical Requirements", GB/T 15269.1-2010, GB 15269.2-2011, Compared with GB 15269.3-2011 and GB 15269.4-2011, in addition to structural adjustments and editorial changes, the main technical changes are as follows:

a) The scope of the standard has been changed (see Chapter 1, GB/T 15269.1-2010, 15269.2-2011, GB 15269.3-2011, Chapter 1 of GB 15269.4-2011);

b) Modified and deleted cigars and related terms and definitions (see Chapter 3, Chapter 2 of GB/T 15269.1-2010 and Chapter 3 of GB 15269.2-2011, GB 15269.3-2011 and GB 15269.4-2011);

c) The product classification has been changed (see Chapter 4, Chapter 3 of GB/T 15269.1-2010);

d) Deleted the sampling rules, sampling procedures and sample preparation for cigars (see Chapters 4 to 6 of GB/T 15269.1-2010);

e) The rolling technical requirements except for the integrity of the wrapper and the combustibility of the cigarette appearance have been deleted (see Chapter 4 of GB 15269.3-2011);

f) The integrity of the wrapper and the combustibility of the cigarette appearance are included in the sensory technical requirements, and the sensory technical requirements and test methods are changed (see Section

5 Chapter 4, Chapter 7 of GB 15269.3-2011, Chapter 4.2, 4.9, Chapter 6 of GB 15269.3-2011 and Chapter 4, Chapter 5 of GB 15269.4-2011);

g) Changed the packaging labeling requirements (see Chapter 6, Chapter 4 of GB 15269.2-2011);

h) The technical requirements for packaging (see Chapter 5 of GB 15269.3-2011) have been deleted;

i) The storage and transportation requirements for cigars have been modified (see Chapter 8, Chapter 9 of GB 15269.3-2011). Please note that some of the contents of this document may involve patents. The issuing organization of this document does not assume the responsibility for identifying patents. This document is proposed and coordinated by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration. The previous releases of this document and the documents it replaces are.

---First published in.1994 as GB 15269-1994;

--- Revised for the first time in.2010 and.2011 to GB/T 15269.1-2010, GB 15269.2-2011, GB 15269.3-2011, GB 15269.4-2011;

3 Terms and definitions

GB/T 10221-2021, GB/T 18771.2-2015, GB/T 18771.4-2015, YC/T 138-1998 and the following The following terms and definitions apply to this document.

3.1 Cigarette core (3.4) is made from cigar tobacco leaves (3.2) as the main raw material, cigar tobacco leaves (3.2) or reconstituted tobacco leaves (3.3) are used as cigar wrappers (3.5), and A tobacco product with cigar flavor characteristics that is made through a certain processing technology.

3.2 Air-cured tobacco with cigar flavor characteristics.

3.3 Reconstituted tobacco With tobacco dust, cigarette fragments, shredded tobacco, tobacco stems and the like as the main raw materials, they are processed into thin sheets that can be used as raw materials for tobacco products. [Source: GB/T 18771.2-2015, 3.16]

3.4 Cigarette filler Cigar (3.1) is filled with tobacco in bundles, sheets, shreds, etc.

3.5 Wrapper The outermost layer of cigar tobacco (3.2) or reconstituted tobacco (3.3) of cigar (3.1).