Expiry date on Makla Neffa Ifrikia tins

General
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Can members please check the expiry dates on recently purchased tins of Makla Neffa Ifrikia purchased from Toque. The date on my tin i recieved today bears the expiry date of 03/2022. I have taken this up with Toque and th

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ey are offering refunds to those who purchased tins from themselves bearing this date. You can find it on the blue area on the lid, it says EXP 03/2022. Toque have just recieved this batch before christmas from their suppliers in Germany and they are bringing this to their attention.

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Hi @Ladysnuffer,

Welcome to Snuffhouse! Thanks for bringing this to our attention. It’s turned out to be more concerning than we initially expected. This might be a bit long, but I want to explain everything.

I saw your post elsewhere and we’ve been investigating. We now have a clearer picture of the situation. Feel free to share this information if you’d like.

The supplier is Henry Impex, based in Luxembourg. They source the product from Sifaco in Belgium, the same company that makes Silverback Makla. We suspect they might be linked, possibly even owned by the same entity, but haven’t looked into it deeply.

We buy from Henry Impex regularly, every couple of months or so. We’ve always considered them reliable, a typical middle European company – a bit formal, but generally trustworthy.

After seeing your posts, we checked our own stock. We were surprised to find:

  • No Track & Trace QR code
    Since May 2024, EU law requires a QR code on all snuff products to track them from source to consumer. This is crucial for safety and compliance. The Isle of Man has a later deadline to implement, but Henry Impex shouldn’t be selling this product elsewhere in the EU without the code.
  • An Expiry Date of 2022
    All of our stock had this same outdated expiry date

We contacted Henry Impex. Initially, they claimed the code wasn’t an expiry date, which was concerning since it clearly was. We reminded them about the missing QR codes, indicating the stock was likely much older than allowed.

They eventually admitted the code was indeed an expiry date and that they’d stopped manufacturing the product some time ago, likely in 2021 or earlier since snuff typically has a shelf life of a year.

What this means is important - all existing retail stock is out of date and so, based on this, we’ve taken the following steps:

  1. We have removed the product from our websites.
  2. We will be destroying all remaining stock.
  3. We will refund any customers who purchased the product since January 1st, 2023.

This situation has made us reassess our relationship with Henry Impex. We’ll be more cautious in the future. And, of course, Neffa Ifrikia is no longer an option for us.

Thanks again for being vigilant.

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Destroying an entire batch of a product is quite a radical move. If it is indeed discontinued snuff, it is still a valuable product to sell - even to collectors. I remember years ago we made a special group order on our Polish forum from a German store that had ten/twenty year old products just to have them in our collections. So, in order not to mislead customers, it is worth considering a new section in the store, e.g. “Collectors’ items” and specify in the description that the product is not suitable for consumption due to the expiry date.

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Or, do what Toque has done in the past. In the notes section of the order, I’ve requested that if they’re looking to get rid of any old / out of date snuffs, I’d be happy to take them off their hands…and they’ve complied. My last purchase with them (2024), they sent an unopened HDT in the original F+T tall tin from 2018, still fresh as a daisy.

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I can assure you that this snuff is still consumable. Past EXP, yes, bone-dry, yes, yet good (and even better than fresh!) in the books of true enjoyers of Neffa Ifrikia.

The thing is, most snuff users are only familiar with bone-dry, expired Neffa Ifrikia.

It’s the last stock of discontinued product in your warehouse. Don’t destroy it. Instead, either freebie it out, or keep selling it at reduced price, letting the buyers know it’s expired stock of discontinued product.

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Yes, it is still good and stored in the right conditions it can be good for years. However, when people see the expiration date, they start to worry. And they don’t need to. After all, it’s not milk, it won’t spoil immediately.

Generally, the appearance of information about the expiration date is only caused by legal regulations - just like warnings about the harmfulness of snuff on health. It’s quite a rare topic, because apart from Sifaco, I remember that I only have a few such packages from India in my collection that have such information. I don’t think it’s a requirement of Belgian law, so I suspect that the packages were aimed at a specific target market. The multitude of languages ​​suggests the Swiss market. In this case, even the T&T code would not be required if production was still continued.

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Thank you everyone for all the information. I have an update.

Yesterday we received a shipment from Henry Impex. This order was placed before we knew about the problems with Neffa Ifrikia, so we had ordered another 250 units. Initially, this was concerning news, and we were in the process of arranging to return the entire shipment for a refund. However, Wagga, our eagle-eyed warehouse operative, decided to inspect the product more closely. To our surprise, these tins do not have any expiry dates on them.

I was initially inclined to return the shipment, as the product appeared quite dry to me upon opening a tin. However, considering @Filek’s input, I believe returning it is no longer necessary. Instead, we will return (not destroy) the approximately 90 tins that do have an expiry date and relist the new product on our websites to gauge customer feedback.

If you are curious, please purchase a tin and share your thoughts here. I am eager to hear your opinions on whether you believe it is still suitable for sale. My primary concern is providing a high-quality product, not simply selling potentially stale goods because they lack an expiry date. Therefore, any feedback is greatly appreciated.

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I for one will not buy it again unless it is a fresh batch as my tin had lost all its flavour and the nicotine was not satisfactory to say the least. I guess this paticularly style of snuff does not keep very well even when unopened.

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In the case of tobacco, expiry dates are a misunderstanding, resulting from mindless bureaucracy. If you think the tobacco is too dry, you can always moisten it, the nicotine hit will be increased by adding drops of ammonia.

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Snuff can certainly be rehydrated, but not sure I’d want to try adding ammonia! Perhaps an alkaliser that is less pungent and one from which issues are less likely to arise due to available concentrations.

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You are wrong, it keeps well, and - to start with - it does not have any particular flavour, bar a light whiff of barnyard and wet cardboard when it’s still moist. Or, as you put it, a smell of a wet dog or something like that - it’s just a tad more pronounced in moist. Factory-fresh, it doesn’t kick at all, but it develops delivery power with time, upon moisture loss, with the increase of alkalis mass part, yet it’s not a nicotine bomb (far from it). Rustica sand leaf (the lowest grade) has rather humble nicotine content and almost no flavour.

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I mentioned previously that the test tin of Neffa Ifrikia I opened from the latest batch we received (no expiry date) was dry and ‘sandy’. It also did nothing for me nicotine-wise, but then I am a nicotine hound.

Anyway, I took the advice here and added three or four big drops of water to my tin this morning, it went a bit clumpy and messy so I put the lid back on and left it until now, about 16 hours.

Opening it just now was a revelation. The moisture has spread evenly leaving the snuff fluffy and plump. The flavour profile is enhanced, no ammonia or wet dog for me, but the biggest surprise was the nicotine hit was much better, not strong by any means, but a distinct and noticeable burn that was a big improvement on the dry version.

It’s all fairly obvious I suppose, but I was genuinely surprised how well the drops of water resurrected the product.

Thanks for all the advice. It has been very helpful. And to add a little cherry, somebody bought 40 tins yesterday, so it looks like we are indeed serving a market need.

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Welp… You mentioned it’s discontinued. This snuff was quite a legend in Europe.

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“Neffa Ifrikia is not produced anymore”

That is a quote from the horse’s mouth. So I suppose all the stock we have, and any stock we get in the future, will be coming from a dwindling supply of remaining stock.

I suspect they have been selling the oldest stock first, with the expiry dates, which makes sense. Since we kicked up a fuss, we are now getting ‘fresher’ stock, without expiry dates.

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