Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/491356
60 STiR tea & coffee industry international Change in pesticide residue in different tea varieties n November the Chinese Food and Drug Ad- ministration proposed a major revision to its food safety laws that will likely be approved by China's congress late this year. This is a high-priority initiative motivated by recent food safety scandals, according to the U.S.- China Health Products Association. It will clarify government oversight, increase regulatory obli- gations for food manufacturers and distributors; enhance controls over food products and increase penalties for non-compliance. Individuals sen- tenced for imprisonment will not be allowed to engage in food manufacturing or distribution in his/her lifetime. During the past three years more than 2,000 people have been prosecuted for food safety-related crimes in China. The amendments continue a sweeping reform of the country's food safety standards following a national scandal in 2008 involving melamine-taint- ed infant formula. That breech led to the execution of violators to make the point China was serious. By 2005 93.1% of tea products already had at- tained or exceed the Green Food standard, accord- ing to a presentation by Mao Limin, then chairman of the Zhejiang Tea Industry Chamber of Com- merce. Limin told delegates at the 2011 North American Tea Conference that random inspection China Expected to Further Strengthen Food Safety Law By Dan Bolton Source: Zhejiang Tea Industry Chamber of Commerce of tea had reached 100% at government owned gardens. In addition 267,000 acres (108,000 ha) of organic tea plantations had been certified organic and pesticide free. The Green Food standard permits chemical pesticides and fertilizers but mandates residue lev- els meet export standards. The European Union and Japan set the highest thresholds but all trading partners have Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs). Organic certification in China is under the IFOAM rules with annual re-certification. Organic teas for export must comply with rules established by cer- tifying bodies such as Swiss-based IMO, the Brit- ish Soil Association, the USDA's National Organic Program and JAS Japan. Every pesticide approved for use has a required safe harvest interval, which is the time lapse be- tween application of pesticides and harvest. In Chi- na preference is given to pesticides that are not eas- ily dissolved in water. This reduces the portion that actually gets into the liquor. Most chemicals biode- grade leaving residue trapped in the spent leaf. "It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that there are pesticides used in commercial tea produc- tion, and that third-world countries are using some illegal ones, which are probably cheaper," writes Austin Hodge, founder of Seven Cups Fine Chi- nese Tea in Tucson, Ariz. "The boney finger always gets pointed at Chi- na, the great polluter, with pollution in Beijing as bad as when I was a kid in Los Angeles. It can all be explained in three words: cheap prices, com- modity, and quantity. For the most part, bugs come in the summer. In the tropics, however, bugs are omnipresent. It's always summer. It provides for a long growing season and an abundant yield. It is a broader truth that if you want cheap tea and cheap food, pesticides come along with the price," he wrote in in a T Ching post last May. In April 2012 Greenpeace issued a report: Pes- ticides: Hidden Ingredients in Chinese Tea following an investigation that showed chemical residue from pesticide. The organization sent samples purchased from well-known tea companies to an accredited third-party laboratory that found residues of vari- ous types on all 18 of the samples submitted. A to- tal of 29 different pesticides were detected, several I