Are all natural teas safe?

Are all natural teas safe?

The report revealed that 91 percent of the teas sampled contained pesticide levels that exceeded U.S. federal limits. Ten out of 11 tea varieties were found to have excess pesticides.

by Joanne Henning Tedesco — 

Recent tests conducted by Eurofins Scientific, an independent analytic testing company, determined that many varieties of Celestial Seasonings teas contain potentially dangerous levels of multiple pesticides. The report revealed that 91 percent of the teas sampled contained pesticide levels that exceeded U.S. federal limits. Ten out of 11 tea varieties were found to have excess pesticides.

Celestial Seasonings, one of the largest specialty tea manufacturers in North America, is owned by The Hain Celestial Group, and advertises their teas as “all natural.” However, at this time no accepted definition exists for the term “all natural,” and the term is often abused by food companies to market lesser quality products.

The tests were part of a larger report, released February 21, 2013, by Glaucus Research Group, and the report appears to be extremely well researched. Following is a list of the teas tested by Eurofins:

• Green Tea Peach Blossom
• Green Tea Raspberry Gardens
• Authentic Green Tea
• Antioxidant Max Dragon Fruit
• Green Tea Honey Lemon Ginger
• Antioxidant Max Blackberry Pomegranate
• Antioxidant Max Blood Orange
• Sleepytime Kids Goodnight Grape
• Sleepytime Herb Teas
• English Breakfast Black K-Cup
• Rooibos Safari Spice

The only tea that had zero pesticides was Rooibos Safari Spice, the rest exceeded federal safety and/or California safety limits. To find out safe limits on teas, see rankbrand.org. The site gives an A to Twinings® teas — their highest rating for sustainability. Celestial Seasonings got an E, the lowest ranking.

Sources: examiner.com, honeycolony.com and naturalnews.com.

Joanne Henning Tedesco is editor of AzNetNews.

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Reprinted from the AzNetNews archives.