EU
Unilever’s success in its health claim application to European Food and Safety Authority regulators (EFSA) indicates the scientific progress of tea-health links. Research studies are now able to show specific molecular cause-effect relationships instead of correlations that are suggestive but do not meet standards of scientific evidence.
The Unilever claim is that “owing to its caffeine content, black tea improves attention.” It laid out how this works. The molecular structure of caffeine is like adenosine, a central nervous systems neuromodulator. When adenosine binds to its molecular receptors, this slows neural activity in the brain’s striatum, a cluster of neurons in the forebrain. The striatum coordinates many aspects of cognition.
Caffeine binds to the same receptors, blocking the binding of adenosine and thus its lessening of alertness. It also affects dopaminergic excitative neurotransmitter pathways that manage attention. Yes, the language is obscure and specialized, but it is at the core of tea biogenetics. The methods behind the language are supported by host – real people – studies. These controlled for conditions of use, such as time of the tea serving, amount and cumulative intake. An EFSA working group panel of experts laid out conditions of use questions to complement the Unilever “hard” science. This fine-tuning established that the health claim was substantiated by an accumulation of 1,040 milligrams of tea solids, consumed within a period of 90 minutes and delivering at least 90 mg of caffeine and 36 mg of l-theanine (the amino acid commonly found in tea leaves.)
The new vocabulary will replace the two dominant phrases in the research literature: “green tea may….” and “more research is needed.” The Unilever application builds on research on caffeine and adenosine that dates to 2010. What makes it “new” is that “may” is replaced by “does” and “more research” by “scientifically proven.” That caffeine helps you concentrate isn’t exactly a lightning flash of insight. “But we know that.” “Yes, but now we know exactly how it works, why and within what conditions.” The claims – and often folklore – of tea curing disease or guaranteeing weight loss will increasingly be tested at the biogenetic level and at some stage we will see the medical certification that today no tea has earned.
EFSA is a decentralized agency within the EU that provides scientific recommendations and advice to policymakers on risks associated with the food chain.