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FineTeaUK FineTeaUK is offline
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Location: UK
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The European Union has strict controls on pesticides on imported tea. However, they usually rely on testing in-country (i.e China). Personally I'm fairly dubious about the testing, having visited and seen the whole production and export process.

For peace of mind any tea I import that doesn't have an Organic certiciation (which I insist of receiving a copy of and varying with the issueing agency), I send the tea to a UK lab for pesticide residue testing. I have the tea tested two ways. By crushing and testing a large 200g sample, and also by testing the water brewed from a standard 5-7g sample. The brewed tea test has always come back completely negative. No tea I have sent so far has ever failed the tests. Any tea that has come back with some traces of pesticides has always been in the destruction and test of a large 200g sample, and the residue was so low that it was well within the strict EU guidlines for trace.

So, what this essentially says is that any pesticides were not water soluable and so your cup of tea is 100% safe. You'd have to actually eat the leaves to even ingest any low levels of pesticide which were already EU safe anyway.

So, my advice is ask your tea retailer if they test the imported tea in your country of purchase, so you can be assured absolutely. Even then, don't worry too much.