Impacts of brewing time, brewing temperature and brands on the leaching of phthalates and bisphenol A in dry tea

ABSTRACT

Although tea is often considered a healthy drink, there is the possibility for it to contain bisphenol A and phthalates. This project was designed to quantitate the amount of these compounds when tea was prepared in a variety of conditions, and with a variety of different brands and flavours. BPA and phthalates were extracted using solid phase extraction and quantitated using gas chromatography – mass spectrometry. The leaching concentration of di-n-butyl phthalate, a major phthalate in dry tea samples, increased with respect to both brewing time and temperature at rates of 5.9 ng/g/min and 2.3 ng/g/°C, respectively. Loose leaf green teas showed lower concentrations of contaminants than bagged teas. The highest concentrations found of all compounds were for benzylbutyl phthalate in both Brand2 English breakfast and Brand2 green teas with concentrations of 244 ± 76 ng/g and 197 ± 9 ng/g, respectively. Di-n-butyl phthalate, benzylbutyl phthalate and bis-2-ethylhexyl phthalate were all present in concentrations of 50 ng/g or more in 3 or more samples.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Brewing
• tea
• plasticiser
• bisphenol A
• phthalates
• di-n-butyl phthalate

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the equipment provided by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). The authors would also like to thank Huryyah Alamer for her technical assistance in the laboratory.

Declaration statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).