Standards Development

Scope

This proposal for the developing of International standard specifies the terminology, definition, principle of classification and type of tea and their reprocessed or further-processed products only made from the plant Camellia sinensis L.O.kuntze. It is inapplicable to the infusions from herbs or fruits other than Camellia sinensis referred to as “tea”.

Purpose

Tea is the most popular and healthy beverage, all derived from the processed young tea shoots of the tea plant Camellia sinensis. Tea has a global expanding market and people in over 195 countries drinking it. It is produced in more than 60 countries; mainly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. China, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Indonesia account for 80% of worldwide production. In 2018, a total of 5,856,414 tonnes of tea were produced. It has doubled in past twenty years. World tea exports increase annually by 1.4 percent over the last decade to reach 1.85 million tonnes in 2018. The massive expansion is also a result of increased consumer health consciousness. World tea consumption increases annually by 4.5 percent to 5.75 million tonnes.

So far, most of the knowledge surrounding tea classification is based on the processing method and the oxidation (also called fermentation) extent of tea polyphenols especially catechins in tea fresh leave after being plucked. The teas basically were classified into six tea types recognized as green, yellow, white, oolong, black and dark tea. Although there are a vast number of different teas including tea, flavoured tea, teabags, decaffeinated tea, and tea or flavoured tea with other food ingredients in worldwide market. However, it is a little hard for consumers to recognize the tea types. It is necessary to define a basic system to standardize the tea classification for fair cognition.

At present, there are ISO 3720:2011 black tea definition and basic requirements, ISO 11287:2011 green tea definition and basic requirements, ISO/TR 12591:2013 white tea definition and ISO 6079: 1990 instant tea in solid formspecification. Moreover, there are ISO/AWI 12591 white tea definition and basic requirements, ISO/PWI 20176 for oolong tea, ISO/PWI 2130 for matcha are under developing.

At present, there are ISO 3720:2011 black tea definition and basic requirements, ISO 11287:2011 green tea definition and basic requirements, ISO/TR 12591:2013 white tea definition and ISO 6079:1990 instant tea in solid formspecification. Moreover, there are ISO/AWI 12591 white tea definition and basic requirements, ISO/PWI 20176 for oolong tea, ISO/PWI 2130 for matcha are under developing. So, it is necessary to develop a basic classification system to categorize the miscellaneous tea products for the fair cognition of consumers, producers and traders.

The working group ISO /TC 34/SC 8/WG 6 on tea classification was established after 25th meeting of ISO/TC 34/SC8 in July 2015, proceeded from a preliminary work items. The WG6 has collected a thousand of tea samples worldwide and initially establish a chemical classification methodology for differentiating six tea types of a particular tea. Due to complexity of tea classification, WG 6 lagged the timeframe of standard development. So, the project was back to the stage of preliminary work item in the 26th meeting in December, 2017. In the resolutions from 27th meeting of ISO/TC 34/SC 8, the chemical classification methodology was required to submit a draft technical report and re-submit a new work item proposal for tea classification based on processing techniques.

Based on the above resolution, we’d like to re-submit this NP to continue the development of tea classification. The convenor team has prepared a working draft as the attachment. In this draft, it specifies the terminology, definition, principle of classification and type of tea and their reprocessed or further-processed products only made from the plant Camellia sinensis (Linnaeus) O. kuntze. It will set a basic framework for the further development of the integrated tea standards. This standard is intended to benefit industry, consumers, governments and distributors in whole tea industry. 

Consider the following: Is there a verified market need for the proposal? What problem does this standard solve? What value will the document bring to end-users? See Annex C of the ISO/IEC Directives part 1 for more information. See the following guidance on justification statements on ISO Connect:

https://connect.iso.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=27590861