Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons have removed some Elf Bars from their shelves as UK supermarkets respond to a shocking discovery about the disposable vape pens.
An investigation released earlier this week found that the Elf Bar 600, which was voted the '#1 Best Disposable Vape', contained at least 50 percent more than the UK's legal nicotine limit.
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The current limit stands at 2ml, or two percent in strength, yet a batch of the model was found to contain between 3ml and 3.2ml of liquid nicotine.
A spokesperson for the Chinese company ‘wholeheartedly apologised’ for 'inadvertently' breaking the law in a statement to the Daily Mail.
"We found out that some batches of the Elf Bar product have been overfilled in the UK," they said.
Dubbing the ordeal a 'highly regrettable situation', the company assured customers that the 'inadvertent' overfilling did not affect the product's safety.
"It appears that e-liquid tank sizes which are standard in other markets have been inadvertently fitted to some of our UK products," the brand explained.
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"We wholeheartedly apologise for the inconvenience this has caused."
Supermarket chains where Elf Bars are sold have since responded to the scandal, with Sainsbury's telling The Sun that it has removed the products from its stores altogether.
The company explained to the outlet that this measure has been put in place while its 'suppliers investigate this matter further'.
Similarly, Morrisons has removed all flavours of the disposable vapes as it investigates the issue.
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A spokesperson for the brand said: "As part of our ongoing investigation into the legal compliance of Elf Bar 600 disposable electronic cigarettes with Trading Standards, we have made the decision to remove all flavoured variants from sale.
"The products will only be returned to sale once stock that fully complies with UK legislation becomes available."
According to the Daily Mail as part of its investigation, Tesco has also removed some of its Elf Bar 600 products from the shelves.
It's currently unclear whether the supermarkets will offer a refund to customers who bought the e-cigarettes before the news broke.
LADbible has contacted Tesco and Elf Bar for further comment.
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Elf Bars have risen to popularity in recent years - for a while you couldn't scroll through TikTok without seeing one of the colourful devices pop up.
In fact, online vape platform IndeJuice reported a whopping 279 percent increase in disposable vape sales during 2021’s final quarter, with Geek Bar and Elf Bar being the two top-performing brands.
Despite vapes generally being less damaging than cigarettes, health experts have consistently expressed concerns about the potential for lung damage down the line.
Elf Bars and similar products have sparked further controversy as their colourful format and variety of fruity favours may be more appealing to a younger audience.
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The recent discovery that batches of the devices contain illegal levels of nicotine has only further added to concerns.
Daisy Phillipson