Umm...reading the introduction makes the point clear that these
amounts are not considered to be the acceptable levels. These are the
absolute limits, above which action will be taken. In addition
inspectors are not bound by these amounts. Any condition they see as
deleterious can be a reason for action.

I guess these standards are published so the legal system has
something to chew on during its deliberations on any case involving
these issues....more than anything else.
If I were a producer, my goal would be Zero defects. Even though
practically unattainable, the product would be the better for the
effort. .

We can never expect commercial production to rise to the same
quality/purity as we do the small, manual operations. This is, after
all, the reasoning behind the search for the most excellent producers.
In this world there is Good, Fast and Cheap and you can really only
have two of those at a time.

"Nigel at Teacraft" > wrote in message
om...
| Mike Petro > wrote in message
>. ..
|
| > Now back to the matters at hand: How many insect parts are allowed
in
| > a Bingcha, or conversely, how many tea leaves are allowed in a
sample
| > of Poo Poo Puerh? Does anyone know if China has a similar document
| > establishing standards?
|
|
| I have been on the sharp end of making tea for many years, and
despite
| tea being traditionally manufactured as an "agricultural product" I
| have always taught that it should be produced as a food product:
clean
| and free of defects -and made to the standard expected. Food being
| totally free of defects is of course an impossible dream, hence the
| USDA listing (http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/dalbook.html) of
allowable
| defects for foodstuffs (Food Defect Action Levels) mentioned in an
| adjoining thread last week
|
| While this list makes gruesome reading for those fond of canned
| salmon, dried peas, or coffee beans (but without the allowable
molds,
| maggots and rodent hairs) the USDA list does not specifically
mention
| tea (Camellia sinensis). Neither could I find, in my library of tea
| data, any defect contamination limits for tea - though I do have a
| small collection of examples of extraneous matter removed from
| commercial teas* - no official advice was found as to the
"acceptable"
| levels of these defects.
|
| So I posed the question to the USDA and they answered somewhat
| circuitously:
|
| "Dear Sir,
|
| No defect action levels have been established for defects in teas.
| General requirements apply however: foods, including teas, must be
| clean and free of deleterious substances. The fact that a defect
| action level for a certain food and a particular defect has not been
| established does not
| mean that the food is exempt from these general requirements.
|
| Industry Outreach Team 023
| Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Food and Drug
| Administration"
|
|
| It would indeed be interesting to know if the Chinese have better
| defined standards than the USA for contamination of tea.
|
| Nigel at Teacraft
|
|
| * As percentage of defects seen: stones and grit 27%, textile thread
| 20%, human hair (>5cm ong) 13%, seeds 13%, metal pieces 13%, bamboo
| pieces 7%, insect parts 7%