What are the most popular commodities on the ancient Chinese Silk Road, ceramics, silk, tea. Tea is a natural beverage with a long history, and even in modern times, it still has a wide audience, and there are enthusiasts of tea at home and abroad. And in recent years, because various studies have proved the health effect of tea, tea has gradually become popular in the circle of young people.
But a major issue about tea that has been raised many years ago, and even now it has not really been solved, is the problem of pesticide residues in tea.
Tea pesticide residues exceed the standard, drinking tea is equivalent to drinking pesticides?
According to the sampling results of the relevant national supervision departments on green tea in 2018 to 2021 compiled by Consumer Report, the proportion of tea with pesticide residues exceeding the standard reached a staggering 86.3%, which made many tea lovers prohibitive. Unqualified tea sampling not only includes a large number of residual pesticides, but also the problem of heavy metals exceeding the standard, which makes people feel a pinch of sweat.
According to the scientific research of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, only 2% of the country's organic tea is, and the remaining 98% of the tea leaves are sprayed with pesticides. In recent years, because of the problem of excessive tea pesticides, the export of mainland tea has also become a problem, and it has been repeatedly stuck by EU standards, while many people claim that their tea meets national security standards, but the EU deliberately makes a trip. There may be a reason for this, but many tea lovers have expressed their sighs, tea is produced in China in order to Chinese but need to drink imported tea, their own tea is half a periodic table, like drinking the water of the Ganges.
At the end of 1999, the European Union analyzed the tea exporting countries, China and Japan were in the second echelon, belonging to the countries with high pesticide residues, resulting in the export of pesticide residues in the mainland being very unfavorable, this matter has not really been cured even today, why has the problem of pesticide residues in tea been unable to be solved?
The first is the environmental reason for the growth of tea; When it comes to tea tea trees, we subconsciously think of the south, and we have never heard of tea trees planted in the north. The southern air is warm and humid, and the growth of tea requires higher humidity and temperature, and these are the same as those of harmful insects, pathogenic microorganisms, etc., so where there is tea, there must be pests and diseases, which is an inescapable problem. The presence of pests and diseases can cause the loss of related agricultural products up to 70%, so the use of pesticides in the face of this problem is also helpless.
Secondly, it is the problem of production mode, and now the main tea production mode is the way of cooperative production between enterprises and individual farmers, farmers plant tea, pick tea, and then enterprises process and produce packaging. But this also has a problem, that is, grass-roots farmers do not have the ability to effectively judge pesticide residues, coupled with the large number of cooperative farmers, enterprises often have no way to intervene in supervision.
All kinds of problems really exist, which also leads to the problem of pesticide residues exceeding the standard in the mainland tea market. The 2021 National Standard for Food Safety The Maximum Residue Limit of Pesticides in Food has added more standards for pesticide residue limits in agricultural products, and the limits and testing amounts of some pesticides are equivalent, and the provisions are more stringent. In recent years, the pass rate of pesticide testing in agricultural products has been about 97%, and the overall situation is in a better situation. However, because of the current agricultural production model operated by small farmers, the problem of pesticide residues still needs to be supervised and maintained using more targeted and effective methods.
Because of the growth environment of tea plants, it is still difficult to want tea without pesticide residue problems, in daily life, after we buy tea, in the face of the problem of pesticide residues with a high probability, what should we do?
Worried about tea residue pesticides, what to do?
1. Wash the tea
Washing tea is indeed a method with a certain effect, that is, cleaning the tea leaves before drinking tea to reduce pesticide residues on the tea leaves. The best way is not to drink the head to brew tea, the first brew of tea is recommended to be poured out and then start from the second brew, so as to properly reduce the risk of pesticide residues in the tea.
2. Buy tea from regular manufacturers
The purchase of tea should choose the tea produced by regular manufacturers, the mainland attaches great importance to the problem of pesticide residues in agricultural products exceeding the standard, and the regular tea purchased on the market generally meets the national safety standards and can be safely drunk. However, it is unknown whether the bulk tea sold by some unscrupulous traders has been tested, and there may be a large safety hazard, so it is recommended that tea lovers who love tea try to choose tea leaves from regular manufacturers and avoid buying tea at mobile vendors.
3. Purchase Mingqian tea
What does Mingqian tea mean? Generally refers to the tea before the Qingming Festival, because of seasonal reasons, the tea leaves before the Qingming Generally suffered relatively few diseases and insect pests, so the use of pesticides was relatively small. Buying tea leaves before the Qingming Dynasty is relatively more secure. But also because the tea before the Qingming low temperature and slow growth rate, so the number is small and expensive, there has always been a "Ming tea, expensive as gold" saying, so according to their own economic situation to choose.
At present, the tea produced and sold by regular manufacturers on the market generally meets the national safety standards, and the presence of pesticide residues does not necessarily cause harm to the body, as long as it is within the safety standards, it can be safe to drink. In daily life, reduce the number of drinks to make tea, try to choose to drink two bubble tea, but it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that many water solubility of pesticide residues is relatively poor, it is fat-soluble, so the effect of washing tea is limited, and tea drinking should not be brewed too frequently and repeatedly, and it is relatively safer to replace new tea leaves in time to make tea.
Resources:
"In the past three years, the national tea sampling data report: HuiYun, Lu Xian, etc. have had problems, pesticide residues are worth paying attention to" consumer reports2022-02-23
"China's tea industry is unsafe, 98% of tea plants are sprayed with pesticides", Xinmin Weekly, 2012-07-20
"The maximum pesticide residue limit of tea ushers in a new standard Chen Hao" China Cooperation Times2021-09-07