Tea Leaves — Filter-Paper Screen for Exhausted or Coloured Tea

What FSSAI's paper screen does

FSSAI DART includes a filter-paper method for exhausted or artificially coloured tea. A small amount of tea is placed on white filter paper and wetted. If added colour is present, it may dissolve quickly and leave visible stains or streaks on the paper. Kitchen Check should focus on the unusual speed and pattern of staining, not simply on the fact that tea has colour.

Tea naturally colours hot water

Normal tea is meant to release colour when brewed, especially in hot water. The rapid paper screen is different: it looks for immediate artificial-looking stain diffusion on wet paper. A user should not interpret normal brown colour in a cup of brewed tea as proof of adulteration. The app should keep brewing behaviour and the filter-paper check separate.

Use the water-based version only

Some official manuals also describe slaked-lime or chemical approaches for coloured tea. Kitchen Check does not need them because FSSAI already provides a water-and-paper consumer screen. The default household method should stay reagent-free. This keeps the workflow safer for all ages.

Use a clean white background

Coloured or printed tissue can make staining hard to judge. Use clean white filter paper or plain absorbent white paper. If the paper already has marks or is strongly textured, choose another piece. A simple visual test works only when the background itself is neutral.

Do not taste suspicious leaves

If the paper shows strong unusual staining, do not chew the tea leaves to compare flavour. Tasting is not needed for this screen. Keep the remainder dry and separate, especially if you may report the product. A consumer safety feature should not add ingestion to an adulteration concern.

Whole leaf and tea dust may look different

Tea dust has much more surface area and may release colour faster than larger leaves. Kitchen Check should ask whether the product is leaf tea or tea dust before interpretation. This does not eliminate uncertainty, but it reduces false alarms caused by comparing two different forms of tea.

Recommended result wording

Use 'No immediate artificial-looking stain pattern seen', 'Unclear for this tea form—repeat once', or 'Immediate strong stain/streak pattern seen—screen suspicious'. Do not claim which colourant is present.

Do not reuse a tea-bag infusion as the test sample

This check is meant for dry tea leaves or tea dust before brewing. A used tea bag has already released normal pigments and behaves differently. Kitchen Check should ask the user to test a fresh dry sample from the same product. This keeps the method closer to the FSSAI rapid screen and avoids confusing normal brewed colour with added dye.