Research on Color Change during the Storage of Reconstituted Tobacco

PurposeTo study the variation law of L^*, a^*, b^* and ΔE^* of reconstituted tobacco during storage, and provide data support for the study of reconstituted tobacco color change.

MethodThe color of two different kinds of reconstituted tobacco (RTA and RTB) was tested in this study, the changing trend in storage was studied, and the difference between different RT products was compared, too.

ResultThe color of the same product was homogenous, while the colors between different products varied, which might be influenced by some factors, such as raw material receipt, coating liquid receipt, and so on. All the L^*, a^*, b^* and ΔE^* values of the same RT product presented a similar changing trend along with the increase of storage, the three samples of RTA showed a upward trend of L^*, a^* and ΔE^* except b^*; the three samples of RTB showed a upward trend of all value. The trend of a^* and b^* values between different RT products were not similar, the a^* of RTA decreased first and then increased, and the b^* showed a downward trend; the a^* and b^* values of RTB all showed an upward trend, while the changing trend of ΔE^* was similar, which indicated that the difference of the L^*, a^* and b^* changing trends made the ΔE^* value larger, so the change of L^*, a^* and b^* value could affect the change of ΔE^* value. Temperature and humidity had a certain effect on the color changing trend of different reconstituted tobacco products.

Conclusion The results of this research provide data support for the study of color control and color change in the produce process of reconstituted tobacco.