Yes, there is a recall for a type of Yogi brand tea

VERIFY often receives questions from readers who want to know about product recalls they hear about and how to stay safe when products are flagged for health concerns.

VERIFY reader Nancy asked if there was a recall of tea bags for pesticides. 

THE QUESTION

Is there a recall for certain types of tea? 

THE SOURCES

• The Food and Drug Administration
• Yogi

THE ANSWER

Yes, there is a recall for Organic Yogi Echinacea Immune Support Tea.

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WHAT WE FOUND

The Food and Drug Administration announced a recall for Organic Yogi brand Echinacea Immune Support Tea after “pesticide residues were detected above action levels,” an FDA report says. 

The specific lot numbers for the tea products impacted by the recall can be found on the FDA notice. Customers with the recalled tea can return the product to the store they brought it from for a full refund, Yogi says.

Agriculture workers often use pesticides to steer insects and animals away from their crops. The FDA monitors and sets action levels for the maximum amount of pesticides that can be detected in food without being harmful to human health. 

Yogi reported the detection of pesticides in the Echinacea tea product to the FDA. The FDA classified the product as a class III recall, which means that consuming the product is “not likely to cause adverse health consequences.”

In a statement to VERIFY, Yogi says it has been working with the FDA and retail partners to get affected products removed from stores or returned to stores to be disposed of. 

Although Yogi says its suppliers follow organic farming practices and avoid the use of pesticides, the company says if a “neighboring farm is applying pesticides or chemical fertilizers, those applications may drift” onto the land of their organic farmers. 

As a result, the company says it is working with vendors to “ensure full compliance with our supplier expectations and testing requirements” and has “engaged new partners to add additional testing capabilities across all of our products.”