Tesco reviews tea blends over fluoride fears

Tesco will review its tea blends after scientists warned that economy private label teas sold by the grocer and other UK retailers are high in fluoride and that drinking over a liter per day could promote the bone disease skeletal fluorosis.

A Tesco spokesperson told BeverageDaily.com this morning: “All of our food meets the highest standards of quality and safety. We are aware of the University of Derby results and will be reviewing the tea blends we use in light of these data and our own testing.”

Writing in the August issue of Food Research International, Laura Chan from the University of Derby and colleagues bought 38 teas from UK supermarkets, and one each from India and Sri Lanka.

They explain that the tea plant Camellia sinensis L is a known accumulator of fluoride, which it can gather from acidic soils, especially when exposed to airborne sources, and Lu, Guo and Yang (2004) found that tea quality declines as fluoride concentrations increase.

“Fluoride concentrations found in the present study could lead to detrimental health conditions in a human, especially if consuming in excess of a liter of the Economy branded tea per day,” Chan et al. write.

Unilever’s PG Tips fluoride levels relatively high...

Read more...