Greenpeace: Lipton tea bags were found to be difficult to sell banned highly toxic pesticides in Europe

Greenpeace randomly purchased four Lipton brand tea bags in Beijing in March 212, including black tea, green tea, jasmine tea and Tieguanyin. These samples were then sent to an independent third-party laboratory with national qualifications for pesticide residue detection.

The test results show that the samples of Lipton green tea, jasmine tea and Tieguanyin all contain methomyl, a highly toxic pesticide which is forbidden to be used on tea trees by the Ministry of Agriculture. In addition, "Lipton" Tieguanyin was found to contain dicofol, which was banned on tea trees by the Ministry of Agriculture as early as 22, while "Lipton" green tea contained endosulfan, which was prohibited from being used on tea trees by the state.

"Lipton claims to use only pesticides approved by the state and the least amount of chemicals, but it turns out that these promises are empty promises," Wang Jing pointed out.

The report also pointed out that the four samples * * * contained 17 different pesticide residues, including 13 pesticide residues on green tea and Tieguanyin, and 9 pesticide residues in jasmine tea. Seven of the 17 pesticides, such as endosulfan, dicofol and bifenthrin, have not been approved by the European Union, and these pesticides have been proved to affect male fertility and fetal health.

"Lipton's market is all over the world, and it is clear that such tea is definitely not allowed to be sold in Europe. In other words,' Lipton' is selling these products that fail to meet the requirements of the EU to countless unsuspecting consumers in China, "Wang Jing pointed out.

"After the release of the investigation report, the tea enterprises involved have always avoided the fact that a large amount of pesticides were used in the tea planting process, completely ignoring the harm to human health caused by long-term intake of small doses of pesticides," said Wang Jing. "This attitude of tea enterprises simply does not help to completely solve the problem."

Unilever claims that all the raw materials are imported and fully meet the standards of China

Regarding the survey results of Greenpeace, Unilever China issued a statement saying that Lipton yellow card black tea raw materials are 1% imported and fully meet the national standards of China. The raw materials and finished products of Lipton Green Tea, Tieguanyin Tea and Jasmine Tea are regularly sent to the authoritative third-party testing institutions for testing to ensure that they fully meet the relevant quality and safety requirements in Chinese national standards.

The statement shows that Unilever China follows the strict ISO91 quality management system. Lipton tea series drinks have passed HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) certification. Lipton tea series drinks produced by Unilever China fully meet the requirements of China's national standards on pesticide residues and are safe and qualified products.

Unilever China's statement also shows that as part of Unilever's "Sustainable Development Action Plan", Unilever announced in 21 that by 215, Lipton's tea raw materials will be purchased from sustainable tea gardens certified by the internationally renowned organization "Rainforest Alliance"; By 22, all Unilever tea raw materials will be purchased from sustainable tea gardens certified by Rainforest Alliance. "Rainforest Alliance" certification has included strict standards and perfect management system for pesticide use.

Unilever has contacted Greenpeace, and would like to discuss its standards, testing methods, test results, and Unilever's work and achievements in sustainable agriculture and reducing pesticide use in recent years. About the progress of this matter, China Net Finance Center will follow up.

How to remove pesticide components from tea

First, tea washing is advocated. The method of "tea washing" is to pour boiling water into the tea leaves, gently shake the tea and water in the pot several times, and immediately pour out the tea water. It can not only wash the dust and sand, but also remove some pesticide residues and heavy metal substances that are easily soluble in hot water, so that toxic substances that are rarely dissolved in the original tea soup can be removed, especially the way of drinking with boiling water will greatly reduce the intake of lead.

Second, avoid long-term brewing. For example, lead in tea leaves is almost insoluble in tea soup during brewing. As long as it takes two hours, most of the residual pesticide components contained in brewed tea leaves cannot be soaked. Therefore, you can pay attention to "don't chew tea" and "don't soak a cup of tea from morning till night" when drinking tea.

how are pesticides attached to tea?

Tea farmers grow tea, just like vegetable farmers grow vegetables. There is no need for pesticides, fertilizers and pesticides. The key is the residual amount. Generally speaking, tea before the Qing Dynasty is relatively safe, and after spring tea, there is a high incidence of pests, which occurs every ten days. At this time, it is necessary to spray pesticides on tea trees. Therefore, there are relatively many pesticide residues in summer and autumn tea.

It is almost impossible to tell whether there are pesticides in tea just by looking at the shape, color and smell of tea, and it can only be detected by experts from the Quality Supervision Bureau. However, for the vast majority of tea, it is normal to contain pesticides. As long as the pesticide residues are controlled within the national standards, it is a safe product for the human body. In addition, some pesticide components, such as lead in tea leaves, are almost insoluble in tea soup when they are brewed at ordinary times, and most of the residual pesticide components contained in tea leaves brewed with ordinary water cannot be soaked within two hours.

therefore, remember two things: first, don't chew tea, and second, don't make a cup of tea from morning till night without changing the tea. It's safer to drink tea like this.

and according to the relevant test report of a city, 43 kinds of tea varieties (including labels, heavy metal indicators, colorant indicators and pesticide residues) were randomly selected. After inspection, 35 kinds of tea products were qualified, and the sampling qualified rate was 81.4%. Fenvalerate exceeded the standard in 3 kinds of tea and dicofol was detected in 5 kinds of tea. Dicofol is a low-toxic organic dicofol, which is very stable in nature and not easy to degrade under natural conditions. It is forbidden to use dicofol in tea trees in China. Fenvalerate is a pyrethroid insecticide, which degrades slowly under natural conditions. For the vast majority of tea, it is normal to contain pesticides, which generally does not cause acute poisoning, but the chronic poisoning caused by the accumulation of pesticide residues in the human body cannot be underestimated.

how to identify whether there are pesticides in tea?

the really effective way is to rely on the tea quality inspection department to identify whether tea contains pesticides by physical or chemical methods.

there are two methods to identify tea: sensory and physical and chemical identification. Sensory identification, also called evaluation, the first shape belongs to appearance identification. Sensory identification can be divided into four items: first, the rope, the different types of rope, the requirements and presentation of rope are different, such as tightness, straightness, thickness, oblate, whole broken, light and heavy. It should be consistent with the normal situation of this variety. Second, the color, whether dull or glossy, should also be consistent with the requirements of the variety, such as red-brown black tea, brand-new green green green tea and brown-green scented tea. The third is cleanliness, which should be clean and stalk-free, with lumps, slices and powder not exceeding the limit, and cannot contain non-tea inclusions. The fourth is tenderness. It is better for the same variety of tea to have more white buds. Although the rope is a little thick, it is tender and translucent.

The identification of tea can be divided into aroma, taste, soup color and leaf bottom. First, the aroma, fresh nose smell, strong and pure is good, weak and impure is second, stuffy and astringent is worse, and those with peculiar smell are worse. All kinds of scented tea should have their own unique normal aroma. For example, jasmine tea should have jasmine aroma, and magnolia and Zhulan scented tea should have magnolia and Zhulan aroma. The second is taste. With the tongue taste buds, it feels mellow, fresh and pure is the best, astringent, bitter, rough, fermented and light is the second, and moldy, spicy and raw grass is the worst. The third is the color of the soup. When the tea soup is hot, observe the depth of light and shade. Generally speaking, it is better to be light and dark, but the color of black tea soup is darker than that of green tea, and the color of pressed tea soup is darker. Fourth, the bottom of the leaf, taste the brewed wet tea, press it by hand, soft and elastic belong to delicate, hard and inelastic belong to coarse and old. The above identification methods mainly distinguish between superior, inferior and inferior. Everything is from quantitative change to qualitative change, and fake and inferior tea is often found in this sensory identification.

there is no all-round and whole-process quality standard for tea. at present, there are only the standards for purchasing raw tea at the place of origin, that is, 6 grades and 18 grades, and the international GB/T9172-1988 standard for scented tea-grade parisons. Among them, only the national standard GB9679-1988 "Hygienic Standard for Tea" is mandatory. Sensory index: It has the normal appearance and inherent color and fragrance of this tea, and can't be mixed with exotic plants. The leaves must not contain grass substances, and there is no peculiar smell, odor and mildew. Physical and chemical indicators: lead content per kg (3mg for pressed tea), copper content no more than 6mg, antimony content no more than .2mg (.4 mg for pressed tea).

pesticide residue indicators of organochlorine and organomercury, bhc and DDT content no more than .2mg/kg.

Water index: the higher the water content, the faster the deterioration of tea; The less water there is, the tea will not deteriorate easily, but if the water content is too low, the quality of tea will decline. Generally, the water content of tea is about 3%.

ash index: the inorganic compounds in tea are called ash, and the contents of phosphorus and potassium are more, followed by calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, aluminum and sulfur, and the total amount should not exceed 7%.

The physical and chemical identification of tea can be divided into physical identification and chemical identification.

The physical identification of tea has four contents:

1 Leaf inspection: Take a little boiled water and observe it with a magnifying glass. If the color of the leaf is dark green, the top is smooth, the back is fluffy, the leaf is oval, the leaf tip is short and blunt, the leaf edge is serrated, and there are cilia on the sawtooth, it can be judged as real tea. Leaves that do not meet the above characteristics are adulterated tea.

2 inspection of soaked tea leaves: take suspicious tea leaves, make them into powder, put them in watch glasses, and cover the upper end with a watch glasses, control the electric furnace, and bake them for 5-1 min with low fire. On the covered watch glasses, use a microscope. If there are many fine oil droplets and many fine needle-like crystals, it shows that they are pure tea. Otherwise, it means that caffeine has already dissolved and can be judged as soaked tea. It can also be determined according to the specific gravity method of leaching solution. The specific gravity of soaked tea leaching solution is 1.23 ~ 1.57, which is far from the specific gravity of fresh tea leaching solution of 1.98 ~ 1.145. The combination of the above two methods can make a more accurate judgment.

3. Examination of tea adulterated with pigment: Take tea powder and put it on white paper, and rub it repeatedly, such as leaving stripes of various colors on the paper, indicating the existence of colorant. You can also add a little chloroform to the tea. After shaking, if chloroform is blue or green, it indicates that the tea is doped with colorants such as indigo or turmeric.

4 test of adding wax to tea: spread a little tea on rough white paper and iron it with an electric iron. If there is obvious oil stain on the white paper, it means that beeswax or paraffin is added to the tea.

Chemical identification of tea:

If the suspicious leaves do not contain caffeine and manganese, it has been proved that they are not tea, but if caffeine and manganese are detected, it is not certain that the suspicious leaves are tea. Therefore, it is necessary to test the presence or absence of theanine according to the method stipulated in the national standard to finally determine the authenticity of tea.

Spot checks in the market show that the quality and price of bulk tea are generally inconsistent, and the quality and price are high; In packaged tea, many unscrupulous traders forged famous brand trademarks and packaging such as "Monkey King" and "Jinghua", so as to pass the fake as the real, and the inferior as the good, and they were short of weight. Taking "Jinghua" brand as an example, its trademark, longevity pattern and packaging bag pattern are all registered and protected by national laws. Packaging fixed-point printing, meticulous and exquisite, consumers should carefully identify when buying packaged tea, pay attention to comparison, and avoid being fooled.

In the fourth quarter of 1999, the results of national quality supervision and spot check of jasmine tea showed that the pesticide residue exceeded the limit set by national standards, accounting for 4.29%. China's domestic tea has a vast area and a wide variety, and most tea gardens are located in high mountains, with pure soil and water and little pollution. However, there are many pests and diseases in tea gardens in hilly areas in summer and autumn, and tea farmers ignore the correct use of pesticides, resulting in excessive pesticide residues in tea. In the process of tea processing and blending, raw materials are mixed with each other, which expands the scope of pesticide residue pollution and seriously affects the reputation of tea, domestic sales and foreign trade exports. The new inspection standards implemented by the European Union since July 1st, 2 have greatly reduced the pesticide residue limit index of tea. As a big tea producer and exporter, China is facing severe challenges. Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai have formulated strict tea quality standards.