Remind you that the tea you bought has lemon yellow? Don't drink and hurt your liver!

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April and May of each year is the peak season for new teas to be listed. Recently, a tea sampling news has attracted the attention of many "tea friends": on May 10, the food sampling results released by the State Food and Drug Administration showed that the gongfu black tea (Jin Junmei) produced by Nanyang Tea Factory (sub-package) in Anxi County, Fujian Province, sold at the official flagship store of Jingdong (website) Runhu Tea, was judged to be unqualified due to the detection of lemon yellow, sunset yellow, carmine and other food additives that were specified as not allowed to be used. "China Consumer Daily" combed the sampling and comparative test results released by relevant departments and consumer organizations in the past year and found that the problem of illegal use of additives in the processing of tea and related products is more prominent.

△ Various new teas have been listed.

The problem of illegal use of additives is prominent

In response to the problem of illegal use of additives in the processing of tea and related products, China Consumer Daily sorted out the sampling and comparative test results released by relevant departments and consumer organizations in the past year, and found that many companies had been blacklisted.

In August last year, the Gansu Provincial Food and Drug Administration found in the sampling of tea and related products that the acne-free and beauty-enhancing tea produced by Dingxi Shidetang Biomedical Technology Co., Ltd. exceeded the standard.

In October last year, the Shandong Provincial Food and Drug Administration released tea sampling results showing that many batches of products were unqualified, mainly due to excessive pesticide residues and excessive use of food additives.

In March this year, the Fujian Provincial Food and Drug Administration issued the first batch of food safety sampling information announcements, saying that tea from many brands such as "Tianfu", "Fufang" and "Tongmuguan" was judged to be unqualified due to illegal additives such as lemon yellow, sunset yellow, carmine, etc.

In May this year, the Shandong Provincial Food and Drug Administration issued a notice saying that in april, the province's various types of food sampling, tea and related products had the lowest pass rate, only 89.41%, the reasons are still mostly concentrated in pesticide residues exceeding standards, food additives overuse and other aspects. "According to the National Standard for Food Safety and the Standard for the Use of Food Additives (GB2760-2014), additives are not allowed in the process of tea processing." Li Jiahe, deputy director of the Industrial Development Department of the China Tea Circulation Association, said in an interview with China Consumer Daily that the additives in tea are generally colorants, the purpose of which is to change the appearance of tea and the color of the tea soup after brewing, so that it is more beautiful and more attractive to consumers. "The use of lemon yellow, carmine, etc., is to achieve this effect."

According to experts, if consumers drink tea with colorants added to it for a long time, it will cause damage to the liver.

The one-sided pursuit of color is not scientific

"The illegal use of additives in tea leaves generally lies in the initial processing process." Xu Hao, general manager of Sichuan Xiuling Spring Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., told the author that Sichuan people love to drink bamboo leaf green, which not only requires its appearance to be flat and smooth, but also has higher requirements for tea color. "Some unscrupulous tea chambers will add pigment to the bamboo leaf green to make it greener."

Xu Hao, who has been engaged in tea making for many years, revealed to China Consumer Daily that in order to save production costs and reduce business risks, many large enterprises generally only intervene in packaging processing and sales, and the initial processing and planting are done by farmers, and large enterprises only buy loose tea from farmers.

Xu Hao said bluntly that according to his understanding, in some places in Sichuan, many farmers take their own processed tea to the market every morning to sell, and the greener and more vivid the color of whose home is greener and more colorful, the easier it is to be purchased by buyers. Some tea companies then process the purchased tea leaves, and after packaging, they can be listed and circulated.

Xu Hao said that the pollution of tea leaves by adding pigments is irreversible, and once the pigment is added during the initial processing, it can no longer be removed in the subsequent process.

Recently, after several turnovers, the author contacted a merchant selling pigments in Leshan, Sichuan Province, in the name of a tea merchant. The other party said that there are two main kinds of pigments he sells, one is yellow, which can be used on jin junmei, and the other is green, which can be used on bamboo leaf green. "The price is 75 yuan / kg, and one kilogram of pigment can process three or four hundred kilograms of tea."

Si Huiqing, a professor at the Department of Tea Science of Southwest University and president of the Chongqing Tea Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview with China Consumer Daily that people have certain misunderstandings and prejudices about the color of tea. For example, green tea must be green, and a green shades the ugliness. In fact, normal, good green tea, the color should be yellow-green or tender green, the soup color should also be tender green or yellowish, one-sided pursuit of green is unscientific.

On May 19, the author logged on to the Taobao Tmall mall, entered the keyword "tea" to search, and the results showed nearly 80,000 results, involving more than 20 brands. The price difference between different brands is huge, latte Guanyin, the lowest price per kilogram is only 6 yuan, the highest reaches tens of thousands of yuan. In the advertisement, almost every tea merchant declares that its products are "additive-free".

In the past few days, when the author visited the tea counters of some shopping malls such as Xierqi and Zhongguancun in Beijing, most of the salesmen would emphasize when introducing the products that their products did not contain any additives. Many tea buyers said that they did not know much about the use of additives in tea processing. "I pick tea leaves mainly to see the color, if green tea, it must be the greener the better." A woman surnamed Wang said.

Strengthen the supervision of the primary processing link

Xu Hao said that the current supervision of tea quality is often aimed at qualified tea production enterprises, while there is a lack of strong supervision over the initial processing. "In addition to increasing the sampling of tea terminal products, the relevant departments should also increase the standardization and supervision of the primary processing of tea in tea-producing areas, and severely crack down on the illegal use of additives."

Li Jiahe, deputy director of the Industrial Development Department of the China Tea Circulation Association, reminded consumers that the pigments of tea itself are different from the colorants added by humans, and the pigments that tea leaves themselves have are formed by the tea plants themselves or during processing. The color of the tea soup after green tea brewing is generally not dark green, but yellow-green. "When brewing tea, if the first brew is particularly sweet or the soup color is particularly green, and the second brew tastes and colors are much lighter, such a tea is likely to have a problem." Li Jiahe said.

Xu Hao also reminded consumers that when shopping for tea online, they should be wary of "low-cost explosive products". At present, on some online e-commerce platforms, there are many "explosive" teas, and the "explosive points" are mainly concentrated in the price, "if the sales price of the product is obviously low, its quality should also be marked with a question mark."

"Tea operators and consumers should not 'judge the good or bad by color' of tea." Li Jiahe said that ensuring food safety is the first social responsibility of food production enterprises, and tea production and processing enterprises should firmly establish the awareness of safe production and protection of consumers' health rights and interests, adhere to production according to law, and put an end to the use of additives such as pigments beyond the scope. Tea consumers should also develop a scientific tea tasting concept, should not one-sidedly pursue the color appearance of tea, "suitable for their own taste of tea is the best."

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Food processing strictly restricts the addition of pigments

Carmine, also known as big red, bright scarlet, is an aqueous azo colorant, which is currently the most widely used and the largest amount of monoazo synthetic pigment in China.

Sunset yellow, also known as sunset yellow, orange yellow, sunset yellow, is a water-soluble azo colorant, a commonly used artificial food coloring, stable nature and low price, widely used in food and drug coloring.

Lemon yellow, also known as tartar yellow, acidic light yellow, hydrazine yellow, is a water-soluble synthetic pigment, bright and tender yellow, is a monochromatic variety. It is mostly used for the coloring of food, beverages, medicines, cosmetics, feed, tobacco, toys, food packaging materials, etc., and is also used for the dyeing and manufacturing of wool and silk.

According to the provisions of China's "Sanitary Standards for the Use of Food Additives", the above artificial pigments can be used for fruit juice drinks, carbonated drinks, prepared wine, candy, pastries, jelly, jam, watermelon sauce canned, plum, shrimp slices, plant protein drinks and lactic acid bacteria drinks, pickled side dishes, but the dosage is strictly limited.

If people eat lemon yellow, sunset yellow and other pigmented foods for a long time or at one time, it may cause allergies, diarrhea and other symptoms, when the intake is too large, more than the liver load, it will accumulate in the body, causing certain damage to the kidneys and liver.

Source/China Consumer Daily

Author/Feng Songling