Abstract: Toxicology assessment is an important index to evaluate food safety. To provide scientific references for the evaluation of safety of Pu-erh tea, relative studies were reviewed. The acute oral toxicity tests showed that the LD₅₀ of Pu-erh tea was great than 5β000βmg·kg^-1, which belonged to the actual non-toxic level. The no-observed-adverse-effect-levels of non-fermented and post-fermented Pu-erh tea were 1β250βmg·kg^-1·d^-1 and 5β000βmg·kg^-1·d^-1 in 28βd or 90βd administration tests. Pu-erh tea showed no mutagenicity on the primitive, authentic and reproductive cells during genetic toxicity evaluation. The no-observed-adverse-effect level of Pu-erh tea was 700βmg·kg^-1·d^-1 for both reproductive and developmental toxicities. Little or none toxicity of Pu-erh tea to mice liver cells was observed. No pathological change was observed in human acute and subacute toxicity assays. In conclusion, the toxicology assessments proved the safety of Pu-erh tea.

Key words: food safety, toxicological assessment, Pu-erh tea