Of 1,764 packaged tea samples the Tea Board of India tested in 2025-26, 835 failed safety standards, mostly on pesticide residue and unapproved chemicals, an RTI response shows.

The failure rate is little changed from the year before, when 711 of 1,423 samples failed. Two pesticides, imidacloprid and acetamiprid, account for a large share of the failures; the government has agreed in principle to revise the maximum residue limits set for them, though the final notification has not been issued.

Asked which brands failed, the Tea Board declined, citing an RTI Act exemption for third-party commercial information. Asked what action followed a failed test, it said only that "action had been taken against non-compliant samples under existing control orders and regulatory frameworks," without naming a case or a penalty.

The Board did not break the figures out by growing region, so no failure rate specific to Assam exists in this data. But a large share of the tea sold nationally through the packaged trade, including the volume that passes through the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre, is Assam CTC, the crushed, torn, and curled granule behind most tea bags and everyday builders' tea. Industry sources cited in the reporting point to a separate practice compounding the problem: some packers blend CTC tea with lower-grade leaf and dust to cut cost, which this office notes is a labelling problem as much as a safety one. A grade on a packet is a claim about what is actually inside it; a cup certified by weight and measure is worth nothing if the weight itself is not what the label says.

Sources: Assam Tribune, 835 of 1,764 tea samples fail safety tests in 2025-26; tea board withholds brand names; The420.in, Tea Board RTI Reveals High Failure Rate In Packaged Tea Samples.