Heavy metals in Matcha

Overview

Evidence summary

The table below summarizes what the peer-reviewed and government literature cited on this page reports for heavy-metal concentrations in Matcha. Values are pulled directly from cited sources without re-aggregation. This page publishes literature evidence only, not certification thresholds.

Methodology rules for speciation, basis preservation, non-detect handling, and source pooling are stated in the Methodology section above and apply to every row below.

Source Evidence Inventory

Elemental Composition of Japanese Matcha Powder and Infusions—Potential Role as a Functional Food in Metabolic Health is the current matcha-specific occurrence source. It measured two organic Uji-region Japanese matcha products, daily matcha and traditional matcha, as both powder and infusions prepared at 25, 70, 80, and 90 C. The source reports lead (Pb), total chromium (Cr), and nickel (Ni) among the Heavy Metal Index analytes. It does not measure cadmium (Cd), arsenic species, mercury species, aluminum (Al), tin (Sn), Sb, or uranium (U), so those cells remain gaps.

The source is especially useful for basis discipline. The powder results are the closest exposure basis for matcha-as-consumed, while the infusion results show the soluble fraction and the lack of a statistically significant brewing-temperature effect. Two paper-internal issues are carried forward as cautions: Figure 4 appears to show traditional-matcha powder Pb above the plant-product range the authors cite as safe, and Figure 4 powder Cr appears roughly 20 times higher than the authors’ intake-percentage statement would imply.

Supporting evidence and scope

Pending: regenerated by tools/evidence/apply-product-broad-context.mjs once broad-scope sources route to this page.

Federal / Regulatory Limits vs Field Findings

This is the fast comparison view for standards developers, regulators, retailers, brands, and legal teams. It shows the applicable federal or regulatory limit next to the current field-evidence state. It is not an HMTc pass/fail table; technical distributions remain in the evidence sections below.

Ingredient drivers

The inputs below are ordered by their share of the routed occurrence evidence for the metal each drives; the bar shows relative position within this category, not a comparison against any limit.

Controls and mitigation

Current evidence supports three practical levers. First, test matcha powder directly rather than relying on brewed-tea infusion data, because matcha consumers ingest the suspended leaf powder. Second, preserve origin, harvest, and grade metadata in sampling plans; the current source studied only two organic products from one Uji-region producer, so broader market claims need wider sourcing coverage. Third, include Pb, total Cr with speciation caveat, Ni, Cd, inorganic arsenic, total arsenic, mercury species, and Al in QA panels, because the current matcha-specific source covers only Pb, total Cr, and Ni and leaves several known tea-leaf concern analytes unmeasured.

Testing and verification posture

Occurrence values in this category are measured by ICP-MS in the source literature, the same method the FDA Toxic Elements Program uses for the survey data behind its action levels.

Decision Snapshot

Evidence Handling

Finished-product findings belong on this product page. Ingredient-only findings belong on ingredient pages before they are used for product inference.

How standards math uses this page

This page reports what the peer-reviewed and government literature says about heavy-metal concentrations in this product category; it publishes no certification thresholds of its own. Certification criteria are set separately under the Heavy Metal Tested & Certified program at heavymetalcertified.com, which reads this page as its literature baseline. The two are kept apart by design, so this page remains an independent record of the evidence rather than a justification for any threshold.

Historical recalls and enforcement

No matcha-specific recall or enforcement source is currently routed to this page. Until public-record regulatory events are ingested, this section should remain a gap rather than borrowing enforcement history from broader tea categories.

Methodology

Matcha evidence is handled on the basis the source reports. Powder values stay powder-basis because the product is consumed as suspended whole leaf; infusion values stay beverage-basis and are useful for preparation context but cannot substitute for powder exposure when the dry powder is ingested. Chromium values from the current source are total Cr only, not Cr(VI), and the page does not infer Cd, arsenic, mercury, aluminum, tin, antimony, or uranium from a source that did not measure them. Figure-derived values are treated as provisional anchors when the paper does not print supplementary-table numbers in the main text.

References

Works cited in this page’s text, in first-appearance order. See Sources for this page’s source inventory. Each title links to a source record with bibliographic details, reported findings, and document provenance.

1. Elemental Composition of Japanese Matcha Powder and Infusions—Potential Role as a Functional Food in Metabolic HealthSzymczykowska K, Kupnicka P, Skonieczna-Żydecka K, Melkis K, Chlubek D, and Jakubczyk K · Beverages · 2026 · doi.org/10.3390/beverages12020021Peer-reviewed

Sources

Source records associated with this topic. Inclusion does not establish that every finding applies to this product or ingredient. References above identify works cited in the text.

This page is for readers who need matcha treated as its own exposure pathway rather than as ordinary steeped tea. Brand legal and QA teams should focus on the distinction between powder-as-consumed and infusion-only evidence: matcha suspends the whole leaf powder, so powder-basis Pb, total Cr, and Ni findings can matter even when brewed-tea data look modest. Retailers and regulators should use the page as a literature map, not as a pass/fail table, because the current source base is one small organic Japanese sample set and contains paper-internal tensions for powder Pb and Cr that need supplementary-table confirmation before quantitative pooling.

Update history

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