Agricultural Product Standards Act, 1990 (Act No. 119 of 1990)

Regulations

Purchase

(1)	Tea falling under the category Named tea and Unspecified tea shall comply with the standards set out in Table 1 below:

TABLE 1

STANDARDS FOR THE CATEGORY NAMED TEA AND UNSPECIFIED TEA

Name of the tea

Method of processing/special treatment applied to the tender shoots and leaves of the tea varieties

Quality standards

Black tea

Withering, rolling/leaf meceration, fermentation/aeration and drying.

All categories shall—

(a)	have a total ash content of 4.0 to 8.0 percent; and

(b)	contain at least 30 percent of water soluble extract.

Oolong Tea

Withering, rolling/leaf meceration, part-fermentation/aeration and drying.

Green tea

Enzyme inactivation and commonly rolling of comminution, followed by drying.

White tea

Non-fermentation/aeration and drying.

Yellow tea

Light-fermentation/aeration and drying.

Matcha Tea

Fine-milling of selected, non-fermented dried tea leaves.

Pu-Erh tea

Post-fermentaiton/aeration and drying.

Unspecified tea

Any other methods of processing/special treatment not mentioned above.

(2)	Tea falling under the category Named tea and Unspecified tea may contain food additives.