DRAFT UGANDA STANDARD  
  DUS 2171  
Second  Edition  
2021 -mm-dd 
 
 
 Reference number  
DUS 980: 2021 
© UNBS 2021   
  
Herbal tea  — Specification  
 DUS 980: 2021  
ii © UNBS 2021  – All rights reserved  
 Compliance with this standard does not, of itself confer immunity from legal obligations  
A Uganda Standard does not purport to include all necessary provisions of a contract. Users are 
responsible for its correct application  
© UNBS 2021   
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilised in any 
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without prior written 
permission from UNBS.  
Requests for permission to reproduce this document should be addressed to  
The Executive Director  
Uganda National Bureau of Standards  
P.O. Box 6329  
Kampala  
Uganda  
Tel: +256 41 7 333 2 50/1/2 
Fax: +256 41 4 286 123  
E-mail: info@unbs.go.ug  
Web: www.unbs.go.ug  
 DUS 980: 2021  
© UNBS 2021  – All rights reserved  iii 
 Foreword  
Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) is a parastatal under the Ministry of Trade , Industry and 
Cooperatives established under Cap 327 , of the Laws of Uganda , as amended .  UNBS is mandated to co -
ordinate the elaboration of standards and is  
(a) a member of International Organisa tion for Standardisation (ISO);   
(b) a contact point for the WHO/FAO Codex Alimentari us Commission on Food Standards;  and  
(c) the National Enquiry Point on TBT  Agreement  of the World Trade Org anisation (WTO).  
The work of preparing Uganda Standards is carried out through Technical Committees. A Technical 
Committee is established to deliberate on standards in a given field or area and consists of key stakeholders 
including government, academia, c onsumer groups, private sector and other interested parties.  
Draft Uganda Standards adopted by the Technical Committee are widely circulated to stakeholders and the 
general public for comments. The committee reviews the comments before recommending the dr aft standards 
for approval and declaration as Uganda Standards by the National Standards Council.  
The committee responsible for this document is Technical Committee UNBS /TC 220, Coffe, tea, cocoa and 
related products  
 DRAFT UGANDA STANDARD  DUS 980: 2021  
 
© UNBS 2021  – All rights reserved  1 
 Herbal tea  — Specification  
1 Scope  
This Draft Uganda Standard specifies  the requirements, sampling and test methods for herbal tea.  
2 Normative references  
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content constitutes 
requirements of this doc ument. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, 
the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.  
US ISO 1577, Tea — Determination of acid -insoluble ash  
US ISO 1578, Tea — Determination o f alkalinity of water -soluble ash  
US EAS 38 , Specification for the labelling of pre -packaged foods.  
US EAS 39 , Code of practice for hygiene for food and drink industries.  
US 500, Requirements for nutrition labelling of foods  
US 508, Requirements for nutrit ion and health claims on foods  
US 566, Use of nutrition claims ― Requirements  
US 738, Codex General Standard for Contaminants and Toxins in Food and feed  
US ISO 1839, Tea — Sampling  
US ISO 1573 , Tea — Determination of loss in mass at 103 °C  
US ISO 6888 -3, Microbiology of food and animal  feeding stuffs ― Horizontal method for the enumeration of 
coagulase -positive staphylococci (Staphylococcus aureus and other species) ― Part 3: Detection and MPN 
technique for low numbers  
US ISO 7251, Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs ― Horizo ntal method for the detection and 
enumeration of presumptive Escherichia coli ― Most probable number technique  
US ISO 16050, Foodstuffs -- Determination of aflatoxin B1, and the total content of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and 
G2 in cereals, nuts and derived pro ducts -- High-performance liquid chromatographic method  
US ISO 21527, Methods for microbiological examination of foods ─ Part 8: Enumeration of yeasts and moulds   
3 Terms and definitions  
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitio ns apply.   
2 © UNBS 2021  – All rights reserved  
 ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:  
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.iso.org/obp  
3.1  
extraneous matter  
all organic and inorganic material other herbal tea  composition  
 
3.2  
adulteration  
addition of a substance that is not food into a food product, in order to be able to get more product to sell at 
less cost  
4  Description  
Herbal teas are parts of plants which do not originate from the tea plant and which  are intended for the same 
use as tea  
5 Requirements  
5.1 Raw materials  
The fruits, seeds or vegetable, from which the herbal tea is made shall conform to the relevant Uganda 
standards.  
5.2 General requirement  
5.2.1 Herbal tea shall ; 
 
a) be free of off fla vours and odours;  
b) have colour characteristic of the raw material used;  
c) be clean and reasonably free from extraneous matter and shall not be adulterated; and  
d) produce a liquor of characteristic flavour.  
e) be free from objectionable matter and shall be free  from pathogenic micro -organisms, substances 
originating  from micro -organisms or any other deleterious substances in amounts which may 
constitute a health hazard  
 
5.2.2 Herbal tea extracts and preparations thereof are virtually free of vegetative forms of  mould and other 
impurities .  
 
5.3 Specific quality requirements  
The requirements for the content of acid insoluble ash in the dry mass and for the mass loss (moisture) which 
should be the maximum limits for herbal tea according to US ISO 1577 and US ISO 1578 respectively are 
specified in Table 1 . 
 
Table 1 — Specific requirements for herbal tea  
S/No Parameter  Maximum limits  Test Method  
i Acid insoluble ash % of dry mass,  
% 2.5 US ISO 1577  FDUS 2171: 2021  
© UNBS 2021  – All rights reserved  3 
 ii Loss of mass (moisture content), max,  
% 12 US ISO 1573  
5 Food  additives  
Only the f ood additives permitted in US 45  may be used . 
6 Contamina nts 
6.1 Pesticide residues  
Herbal tea shall conform to those maximum residue limits for pesticides established by the Codex 
Alimentarius Commission for this commodity.  
6.2 Heavy metals  
Herbal tea shall comply with  those maximum levels  for heavy metals  specified in US 738.   
6.3 Aflatoxins  
The maximum content of aflatoxins in herbal tea products, when determined in accordance with US ISO 
16050, shall not exceed 5 μg/kg (ppb) for  aflatoxin B1 and 10 μg/kg for total aflatoxins.  
7 Hygiene  
7.1 Herbal tea shall be produced, prepared and handled in accordance with US EAS 39 .  
7.2 Herbal tea shall comply with microbiological requirements specified in Table 2 when tested in accordance 
with the methods prescribed therein.  
 
Table 3  — Microbiological requirements for herbal tea  
S/No Requirement  Maximum limit  Test method  
i)  Escherichia coli , cfu/g  Absent  US ISO 7251  
ii)  Salmonella , cfu per 25 g Absent  US ISO 6579 -1 
iii)  Yeasts and moulds , per gram 103 US ISO 21527  - 2 
 
8 Packaging  
Herbal tea shall be packed in food grade containers, which  will safeguard the hygienic, nutritional, and 
organoleptic qualities of the product . 
9 Labelling  
In addition to the requirements in US EAS 38, each package sh all be legibly and indelibly labelled with the 
following:   
4 © UNBS 2021  – All rights reserved  
 a)  name of the product; specify the actual name of the herbal tea  
b)  brand name/trade name;  
c)  name, location and physical address of the manufacturer;  
d) country of origin;  
e)  net contents by weight in me tric (`System International') units;  
f) ingredients in descending order of proportions;  
g) declaration of the nutritional information;  
h) date of manufacture;  
i)  best before date;  
j)  storage conditions; and  
k)  nutritional claims.  
10 Sampling  
Sampling of herbal tea  shall be  in accordance with US ISO 1839 . FDUS 2171: 2021  
© UNBS 2021  – All rights reserved  5 
 Bibliography  
US 980:201 7, Herbal tea specification  
 FDUS 2171: 2021  
© UNBS 2021  – All rights reserved  7 
 Certification marking  
Products that conform to Uganda standards may be marked with Uganda National Bureau of Standards 
(UNBS) Certification Mark shown in the fig ure below.  
The use of the UNBS Certification Mark is governed by the Standards Act, and the Regulations made 
thereunder. This mark can be used only by those licensed under the cert ification mark scheme operated by 
the Uganda National Bureau of Standards and in conjunction with the relevant Uganda Standard. The 
presence of this mark on a product or in relation to a product is an assurance that the goods comply with the 
requirements o f that standard under a system of supervision, control and testing in accordance with the 
certification mark scheme of the Uganda National Bureau of Standards. UNBS marked products are 
continually checked by UNBS for conformity to that standard.  
Further p articulars of the terms and conditions of licensing may be obtained from the Director, Uganda 
National Bureau of Standards.  
 
 FDUS 2171: 2021    
 
ICS nn.nnn.nn  
Price based on nn pages  
© UNBS 2021 – All rights reserved