Justification for the use of waste from tea production

Abstract

Abstract In tea-importing countries, to which Russia belongs, waste such as tea dust remains at tea packaging enterprises. This is a powdery mass consisting of particles of dry leaf tea. Leaf tea contains valuable biological compounds: caffeine, flavonoids, tannins, proteins, vitamins. It can be assumed that the chemical composition of tea dust and leaf tea are similar. In order to determine the possibility of rational use of tea dust, a study was conducted of its organoleptic, physico-chemical characteristics and chemical composition. We used an average sample of tea dust, which was compared with black leaf and green leaf tea obtained in one enterprise. Laboratory methods determined the total content of water-soluble extractive substances, the mass fraction of moisture, the total ash content, the content of water-soluble polyphenols, total and non-protein nitrogen, as well as the protein content and the content of various carbohydrates. It was found that the composition of tea dust is dominated by the remains of black tea leaves, which corresponds to the share of this tea variety in the company’s products. Tea dust slightly exceeded black leaf tea in extractives - 35.64% (black tea - 32.47%), mass fraction of moisture - 7.45%, total ash content - 6.19%. In the tea dust sample, the content of water-soluble polyphenols was 7.46%, the amount of protein was 17.44%. The bulk of the proteins are insoluble in water. Studies have shown that tea dust has the potential of an additional raw material source of biologically active substances.