Safety Assessment and Contaminants Detection in Different types of Tea and Tea products

Abstract

Tea crop is highly valued for its aroma, taste, and health benefits. Although it exhibited low water content, it’s essential to consider its safety against contaminants and adulterants such as pesticides, heavy metals, and unlawful chemical additives. Quality, shape, and color are exterior elements, but aroma and flavor are internal core quality factors of tea. Tea leaves are susceptible to contamination during the pre-harvest stage and exposed to many post-harvest factors that enhance the chances of tea quality deterioration. Numerous traditional methods of assessing tea quality exist, but emerging techniques such as spectroscopy, imaging, and electrochemical methods are more accurate. This paper reviews tea types, their consumption, contaminants, and safety issues and evaluates traditional and advanced techniques for detecting tea contaminants and pollutants. This review has the potential to provide comprehensive data about the safety detection of tea utilizing conventional and advanced methodologies, perhaps assisting the tea sector’s expansion.