There’s a lot a discussion going on in the tea world around the Foodbabe article, Do You know What’s Really in Your Tea?
I’m here to tell you its part fear-mongering, part sales pitch, and partly true. Here’s my reasoning: by blowing out of proportion the situation, inflating the dangers, and magnifying the supposed chemicals on tea, she makes a very compelling case for the 2-3 brands of tea/herbs she recommends. All-in-all, a very compelling sales pitch.
That being said, her article, while overblown to stir up fear and controversy, is not wholly inaccurate.
Let me offer a little more insight, depth, and perspective on the situation. In the article, she brings up 3 main issues.
- Pesticides
- Artificial Flavorings
- Tea Bags
1. Pesticides
The regulations for pesticides residues, microbes, etc are, for the most part, not clearly defined or widely available. Therefore, its impossible to totally comply with legal standards when no bright line test exists.
The US uses what’s known as USP 561 (US Pharmacopeia for Botanicals) which provides guidelines on how to conduct rigorous experimentation for pesticide residues and provides a table of acceptable tolerances for about 60 pesticides in mg/kg (PPM), including DDT, (which is 1, by the way). For those pesticides not listed on this table, there is no specific guideline, but the understanding is its supposed to be 0 (zero).
Beyond that, there are also industry standards (such as AHPA) that some companies choose to adhere to and some not.
For the loose standards that do exist in the US, Europe is much stricter.
For the most part, it is the company’s responsibility to ensure cleanliness of leaves and compliance with government regulations and, should they choose, industry standards. From what I’ve seen, short of mass media and mass hysteria over tea/herbs, the government does not closely monitor compliance.
Generally speaking, white tea tends to have the least pesticide residues; black tea the most. That has to do with picking time: the longer the leaves are on the bush, the more they are exposed to, whether intentionally or inadvertently.
In regards to Belight Tea, specifically, it was a concerted effort on my part to ensure that all residues tests came back much lower than is typical for the (non-organic) tea and botanical industry.
Bottom line is, either trust the company whose tea you’re drinking, or if you’re concerned, ask what kinds of checks and balances are in place or have them show you documentation.
2. Artificial Flavorings
First, a point of clarification on this section of the article: she calls out “Earl Grey White Tea” for having added flavors, but how else do we get Earl Grey but by adding Bergamot Oil?!?
Inaccuracies aside, I am in total agreement with the preference for NO artificial flavorings. Ugh! I always ask, and can taste them immediately if included.
While I do my best to personally avoid consuming artificial flavorings, I suspect most people don’t care. To them, tea is tea. And tea is healthy. And if its more palatable with some artificial flavorings, then they still think they’re doing themselves a favor. Who be me to critique? I vote with my $$ and with my product offerings.
In fact, right on the home page, it says Belight contains no artificial flavorings, colorings, or additives.
Read the label and you have your answer as to whether or not a product contains artificial (or even natural) flavorings.
3. Tea Bags
This part of the article was most interesting to me as there hasn’t been a lot of research or discussion around this topic. She brings up a lot of issues here that may be of concern and would be worth investigating further, though I suspect much of it is, again, overblown. Perhaps diving into Google Scholar would tell us what research has been done of the leeching of tea bag derivatives into steeped tea.
In developing Belight Tea, I intentionally avoided the white paper tea bags in favor of pyramids, which look nicer, convey a certain image, and to avoid concerns over sourcing and bleaching of paper. Furthermore, the pyramid tea bags come from Japan, which maintains a certain sacredness around tea and health, and therefore, I suspect (hope) that has carried through into tea bag production.
As a devoted tea and infusion consumer, I personally drink both bagged and loose leaf tea. For convenience, I definitely prefer Belight and other bagged options, especially when on the go.
What does your expertise or insight tell you on all this? Leave a comment below.
Hi WVitae,
I think it is deplorable that the tea distributors are not in touch with their suppliers to the extent that they insist on US residue requirements be followed. What this shows is that we cannot trust any of the tea producers to follow safety standards, and all of the supply is questionable. Tea distributors should be conducting their own third party testing and selling only tea that passes our standards. This makes me mad that so much of our food supply is unhealthy, and no one seems to care!
Sincerely,
Mike
Hi Mike & Thomas,
It is my experience–from being in the industry for over 3 years now–that the vast majority of reputable tea distributors work very closely with their suppliers and do enlist third party testing to ensure cleanliness and compliance of all products they bring to the market. The challenge is with the grey area where standards aren’t clearly defined.
What’s hilarious is that your article is a sales pitch for Belight Tea.
Not an inaccurate observation.
In light of the original scathing review of the tea industry, I think every tea producer/purveyor has to answer for the quality of their products. That’s what I’ve done here and just decided to roll it into the blog post responding to the original critique.
You claim Foodbabe’s article is overblown and fearmongering, yet she had much more information to back up her claims than you do. You claim she has a sales pitch, which is ridiculous because she has no holding in those companies and does not work for them. It seems to me that she simply providing readers with good products she did the research on, as alternatives. Yours, on the other hand, is a sales pitch because you are speaking about your own company.