ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,302,939, issued on May 20, was assigned to NICOVENTURES TRADING Ltd. (London).
"Alternative methods for whitening tobacco" was invented by Michael Andrew Zawadzki (Clemmons, N.C.) and David Neil McClanahan (Winston-Salem, N.C.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present disclosure provides a method of preparing whitened tobacco composition including chemically pulping a tobacco material to form a tobacco pulp, extracting the tobacco pulp with an extraction solution, treating the tobacco pulp with a solution comprising an oxidizing agent for a time and at a temperature sufficient to lighten the color of the tobacco pulp to give a whitened ...