White tea has been of increasing public interest worldwide owing to its health benefits. Based on 2 years of surveillance, the long-term and cumulative chronic exposure risks of pesticide residues through white tea drinking were assessed for different subpopulations in Fujian, China. Twenty-five different pesticides were found, and 74.8% of samples contained at least one pesticide residue.The most frequently detected pesticide was bifenthrin with detection rates of 61.6%. Risk assessment was performed using both the deterministic approach and semiprobabilistic model under the best-case and the worst-case scenarios.The results demonstrated that the dietary risks were extremely low for six different subpopulations in which the risks for adults over the age of 41 were relatively higher. The risk ranking scheme indicated that isocarbophos and triazophos were considered to be of medium risk. The different use suggestions for the 25 positive pesticides are proposed to further minimize the exposure risk to consumer health.Practical Application: Tea is the second most popular nonalcoholic beverage throughout the world. Pesticides are used to improve the yield of tea. Pesticide residues in tea could be one of the exposure pathways for consumers. Monitoring residual levels and assessing the health risk assessment in tea are thus in an urge.
K E Y W O R D Sdeterministic assessment, risk ranking, semiprobabilistic assessment, tea
INTRODUCTIONWhite tea, an unfermented tea, originates from and is mainly produced in the Fujian province, along the southeast coast of China. The "white tea" was named for its silky white fuzz covering the immature leaves and buds (Damiani et al., 2014). Depending on the tenderness of its fresh tea shoots, white tea is classified into three main groups. These are Baihaoyinzhen (Silver Needle, BMYZ, bud only), Bai MuDan (White Peony, BMD, a bud with one or two leaves), and Shou Mei (Long Life Eyebrow, SM, two or more leaves) (Tan et al., 2017; Yue et al., 2019). Unlike oolong tea or black tea, white tea is prepared with only a few steps, including prolonged withering and drying without fermentation (Dai et al., 2017;Luo et al., 2020). Hence, white tea is reported to have a higher concentration of total polyphenols, some alcohol volatiles (e.g., hexanal, benzaldehyde, and benzene acetaldehyde), catechins, and gallic acid than those in other teas (Hilal & Engelhardt, 2007;Unachukwu et al., 2010;L. Wang et al., 2010;K. Wang et al., 2011). Due to a wide range of health benefits (e.g., antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anticancer effects) and its ability to alleviate inflammation, elastic skin, and rheumatoid arthritis, white tea has attracted increasing attention and