ABSTRACT
The 150 samples of pu'er tea collected from the main producing area of Yunnan were detected by ICP-AES method, to investigate the current safety status of pu'er tea rare earth elements. The rare earth elements contents were found to be in the range 0.26-4.07 mg x kg(-1) in all detected samples, with the 43.0% samples exceeding the maximum levels of contaminants of 2 mg x kg(-1) set by GB 2762-2005 "Maximum levels of contaminants in foods". There was a significant difference between ripened tea rare earth elements and raw tea's from the same sources, which affected some ripened tea quality at last. There was a significant difference among the rare earth elements contents of the pu'er tea main producing areas, and the condition of pu'er tea quality and safety controlling was not optimistic at individual producing areas.
