World Cup helps tea makers
By Qiu Quanlin (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-04 08:29 Guangzhou will establish a herbal tea testing centre aimed at protecting the
quality of herbal tea ingredients.
Through testing, the centre, which is
expected to be completed in January next year, will help protect the industry,
said Zhang Junxiu, chairman of the Guangdong Food Profession
Association.
"It means that companies with a history of less than 80
years that lack historically and culturally significant recipes, or that produce
herbal teas that fail to conform to standard procedures, may be banned," Zhang
told China Daily.
He added details of standard ingredients used in herbal
tea products would be issued later this year.
There are some private
brands that use Western medicinal ingredients in their products, said
Zhang.
He said this reduced the effectiveness of herbal tea, which is
usually made from traditional Chinese medicinal herbs.
"As herbal tea is
usually combined with traditional Chinese medicine, those that use Western
medicines will probably not have a big impact," Zhang said.
Some herbal
tea outlets have met other problems, such as poor hygiene
standards.
"Some producers do not wash their herbs after they buy them,
and they also sometimes have unprofessional employees who know little about how
to make herbal tea or how to guide buyers," Zhang said.
He added that
herbal teas with sub-standard materials could harm people's health.
The
new criteria will strictly specify materials, techniques, sanitation standards
and testing procedures for herbal tea making, according to Zhang.
"We
hope the new criteria will help protect legal brands and boost their
development, as well to expand herbal tea drinking across the world," Zhang
said.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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