Abstract
Food and beverage consumption is the most possible route of human exposure to undesirable elements. Tieguanyin tea and white tea are widely-consumed beverage, which may be contaminated by fluoride (F), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), and cadmium (Cd). For this study, the contamination levels and dietary exposure risks of these elements were studied from 72 Tieguanyin tea samples and 40 white tea samples from Fujian Province, China. The average concentrations of these elements decreased in order from F, Pb, Cr to Cd in Tieguanyin tea, while white tea in order from F, Cr, Pb to Cd. Metal-to-metal correlation indicated a weak positive correlation between Pb/Cd pairs (Tieguanyin tea) and Pb/Cr pairs (white tea). A weak negative correlation pair was found for Cr/Cd in Tieguanyin tea. The hazard index levels were below one, suggesting that there was no significant non-carcinogenic health risk to tea drinking consumers under the current dietary intake. The total cancer risk values of Pb, Cd, and Cr via the consumption of Tieguanyin tea and white tea were 4.01×10-5 and 7.64×10-6, fell into the acceptable range of 10-6~10-4. It demonstrated that the cancer risk for consumers via drinking Tieguanyin tea and white tea was acceptable.
Highlights
As the second most popular non-alcoholic beverage around the world, after water, tea (Camellia sinensis) is an important agricultural product for export in China (Yi et al, 2013; Zhang et al, 2017a)
Tieguanyin tea was often processed from one bud and four or five leaves, while only one bud and three leaves were picked for white tea, and their tea plant varieties were different (Sanlier et al, 2018; Xu et al, 2018)
The significantly weak positive correlation was found for Pb/Cd pairs (r=0.392, p
Summary
As the second most popular non-alcoholic beverage around the world, after water, tea (Camellia sinensis) is an important agricultural product for export in China (Yi et al, 2013; Zhang et al, 2017a). Compared to all other teas, white tea is produced in a special way, including only withering and drying processes without enzyme deactivation or fermentation (Chen et al, 2019; Dai et al, 2017; Ning et al, 2016) Because this simplest process, the high concentrations of catechins, amino acids, and other constituents are retained in white tea (Chen et al, 2019; Tian & Huang, 2019; Zhang et al, 2019; Ning et al, 2016). Both Tieguanyin tea and white tea are famous around the world and are mainly produced in Fujian Province (Li et al, 2014; Ning et al, 2016)
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