No carcinogen found in pu'er tea: inspectors

Health and family planning commission of Yunnan province confirmed on Sept 14 that no aflatoxin was detected in selected pu'er tea samples, People.cn reported on Thursday.

A total of 119 samples of pu'er tea - 55 samples of ripened tea, 45 raw tea, and 19 processed tea, among which 92 were in individual packages and 29 in bulk packages - were collected and underwent thorough strict detection procedures based on national regulations on food pollutants from 2013 to 2017.

Results showed that the sampled tea was not contaminated by aflatoxin B1 and the tea met national standards on tea production.

Fang Zhouzi, a popular science blogger in China, posted a story on his WeChat public account in July, claiming that the pu'er tea could easily get polluted in the process of fermentation and storage by various mycotoxins, including the fatal carcinogen of aflatoxin.

His remarks raised fears among the citizens and triggered disputes in the science community.

Cheng Si contributed to this story.