Tea Bags Contain Carcinogenic Substances That Trigger Cancer: Myth or Fact?

Is it true that the teabags you usually enjoy can actually cause cancer? For those of you who like tea, of course this is quite disturbing. So what is the fact that this tea actually contains dangerous ingredients? Is this just a myth?

To find out more, let’s look next, facts or myths, is it true that tea bags contain cancer-causing ingredients.

Facts about tea bags at a glance

However, there are also disadvantages. Usually tea leaves can be packaged in broken tea bags, so that most of the essential oils and aroma of the tea leaves have been lost.

Apart from that, recently there have been rumors that tea bags can be toxic and even cause cancer.

Ingredients for making tea bags

Apart from paper, tea bags are generally made from nylon, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polylactic acid (PLA).

The paper used is generally kraft paper coated with polyethylene plastic which functions in hot gluing.

The paper industry for wrapping tea no longer uses chlorine as a paper bleach. These requirements are included when requesting a product safety assessment.

What about tea bags on the Indonesian market?

There are several standards so that all food products can be sold freely in Indonesia. One of them is that it has passed the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) certification.

It is important to know that basically all products that have been certified by BPOM must have gone through various thorough tests and inspections. The aim is to ensure the safety of the product when consumed by the public.

This also applies to tea bag products. So, there is no need to worry about consuming tea bags from trusted brands in Indonesia that are BPOM certified.

As long as the teabag you buy has a distribution permit from BPOM, the product is classified as safe for consumption. It has even passed various product safety requirements and assessments for consumption.

Other issues surrounding tea bag safety

Several things that make consumers worried about consuming tea bags include:

1. Immersing tea bags in hot water for too long is dangerous

One of the concerns consumers have about tea bags is the fear of immersing them in hot water for too long. Because, it can be dangerous for health.

Reporting from Pom.go.id, BPOM explained that assessing the safety of tea bags also requires compliance with migration limits for both paper and plastic.

This is stated in the Regulation of the Head of the POM Agency Number HK.03.1.23.07.11.6664 of 2011 concerning Supervision of Food Packaging.

The migration limit itself is the maximum amount of substance that can move from food packaging (in this case tea bags), to food ingredients (for example tea boiling water).

2. Use of chlorine compounds in tea bags

Packaging materials used for tea products should use food grade materials so that they are safe when in direct contact with food.

One of these things has been fulfilled through the tea bag testing process in Indonesia. BPOM ensures that tea bags that pass the BPOM certification test do not contain chlorine compounds as bleaching agents which are harmful to health.

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