Selecting a representative tea for risk assessment of pesticide residue in tea:Afidopyropen as a case

Due to inconsistency of tea type for setting Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) for pesticide globally, the harmonization in MRLs for tea is lacking. This study evaluated a representative tea selection strategy for MRLs establishment, based on health risk assessment and extrapolation methodology. Take afidopyropen (ADP) for example across white, black, oolong and green tea, limited ADP (-12.95 % to 24.70 %) was lost during four types tea processing, and the highest residues of total ADP (0.54 mg/kg) was detected in black at pre-harvest interval of 7 d. Meanwhile, white tea exhibited the highest infusing rate of ADP (23.68-24.20 %), surpassing the other three tea types. Combined with residue and infusion rate, black tea posed the highest acute and chronic dietary risk quotient values for all population groups. Consequently, black tea could serve as the optimal representative for ADP risk assessment, facilitating the establishment of standardized MRL for ADP to achieve regulatory consistency globally.