Investigation of carbonate addition on risk element concentrations in various teas

Abstract

Healthy nutrition requires to notice risk element content of daily ingested foods and beverages. Several tea types are frequently consumed beverages in daily routine and social situations. Carbonate, although it is not in the natural ingredients of tea, can be added to maintain more brew. Also it gives brilliant red colour while reducing the brewing cost. For this respect, in this study, carbonate added infusions of some black teas (black, earl grey and green tea), herbal teas (fennel, mint and sage tea) and fruit teas (apple, lemon and rosehip) was investigated by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) for the determination of carbonate addition to the risk element (Al, As, Ba, Cd, Mo, Pb, Sb and Ti) contents of teas. Also, the microwave digestion analysis applied by dissolving tea powders in acid solution was conducted in order to investigate how much risk element transfer to the brew. Prior to microwave digestion process, the total risk element contents of the tea grains were determined by again ICP-OES. Furthermore, health risk assessment studies including non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks were conducted. According to the health risk assessment results of 200 mL daily consumed teas, hazard index (HI) was found less than 1 and target carcinogenic risk (TCR) was determined as less than 1 × 10^-4 which shows all selected tea samples are in the low risk group.

Keywords: Black tea; Carbonate effect; Fruit tea; Herbal tea; Non-essential elements.