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Matcha and aluminium: should you be worried?
Yes, matcha contains aluminium, and so does ours. The tea plant draws it from the soil, and since you drink the whole leaf as a powder, you swallow it along with the leaf.
Par l’équipe Matcha Matcha. Mis à jour le 13 novembre 2026.
In short: all matcha contains aluminium. In 2025, the French food safety agency (Anses) set a reference value of 40 µg per kilo of body weight per day, which covers everything you eat and drink, over the long term. There is no legal limit for aluminium in food. Drinking matcha does you no harm. As with anything, just don't overdo it.
Why is there aluminium in matcha?
Aluminium is in the soil. The tea plant takes it up through its roots, especially in the acidic soils where it grows well, and stores it in its leaves. Nobody adds it: it comes with the plant, whatever the brand.
Brewed tea or matcha: what changes
With brewed tea, you throw the leaves away. With matcha, you drink them, ground into a powder. So what the leaf contains ends up in the cup, aluminium included.
Grade and price won't tell you anything
You often read that a high-end matcha contains less aluminium. Don't rely on it. The grade doesn't tell you the content, and neither does the price. Only a lab test does.
What does Anses say?
Anses, the French food safety agency, published an opinion on aluminium on 23 May 2025. In it, the agency sets an oral toxicological reference value: 40 µg per kilo of body weight per day, which is 2.8 mg per day for an adult weighing 70 kg. If you have seen a higher figure in an older article, it is probably a European value from 2008, which Anses did not adopt.
What this value means
It is a guide for daily exposure over years, from all sources together: bread, vegetables, chocolate, everything you eat and drink in a day. It was not set per cup or per product. To set it, Anses started from the dose with no observed effect in animals, converted it to humans, then divided it by 79 to keep a safety margin.
The content of a matcha is given in mg per kilo of powder, and the reference value in µg per kilo of body weight. You can't compare the two directly: it all depends on how much you drink and on the rest of your diet.
Aluminium is already on your plate
In January 2026, Anses published its total diet study, which measures what French people eat and drink each day. For aluminium, adults are at 38 µg per kilo per day on average, and children at 71. With their usual diet, 39% of adults and 76% of children are above the reference value.
For adults, hot drinks and bread each account for 17% of this exposure, and vegetables for 10%. For children, the main source is pastries, cakes and biscuits, at 17%. Matcha was not measured separately in this study.
Anses concludes: "there is a risk linked to exposure to aluminium". This finding is about the diet as a whole. The agency asks for less aluminium in the foods that contribute the most.
So the subject goes well beyond matcha. For your cup, the answer stays simple: drinking matcha does you no harm. As with anything, just don't overdo it.
And our matcha?
Like all matcha, ours contains aluminium. We would rather tell you here than let you find out somewhere else.
Our matcha is tested by an accredited laboratory. You can ask for the lab report: it shows the aluminium content, and we send it to you on request. For substances that have a legal limit, our matcha complies. For aluminium, there is no such limit, so we have no limit to point to.
Questions to ask your brand
Whatever matcha you drink, four questions are enough.
Have you had the aluminium tested, and by which laboratory?
Is that laboratory accredited?
Can you send me the full lab report, rather than a summary?
Does this result apply to the matcha you sell today?
Be wary of a brand that tells you it meets the legal limit: for aluminium in food, there isn't one.
Your questions about matcha and aluminium
Is there an aluminium-free matcha?
No. The tea plant draws aluminium from the soil, so all matcha contains some. A brand can tell you its content, but it can't promise you zero.
What are the effects of aluminium on health?
According to Anses, long-term oral exposure can affect the nervous system, bones and blood. The effects on the nervous system are the ones that appear at the lowest doses: the agency built its reference value on them, and it applies to long-term exposure.
Should you stop drinking matcha?
No. Drinking matcha does you no harm. As with anything, just don't overdo it. If aluminium worries you, look at the rest of your diet too: bread, hot drinks and cakes already provide some.
Does the body absorb the aluminium in matcha?
Very little. Anses estimates that 0.1 to 0.3% is absorbed when aluminium comes from food. This doesn't change how to read the reference value, which is calculated on the amount swallowed.
Is there a legal limit for aluminium in matcha?
No. Aluminium has no regulatory maximum level in food. The 40 µg from Anses is a health guide, not a sales standard.
Sources
- Anses, opinion on the development of toxicological reference values for aluminium and its inorganic compounds, request no. 2023-MPEX-0137, 23 May 2025.https://www.anses.fr/sites/default/files/AP-VSR2023-MPEX-0137-RA.pdf
- Anses, Third French Total Diet Study, results, volume 1, request no. 2019-SA-0010, 20 January 2026.https://www.anses.fr/system/files/ERCA2019-SA-0010-RA-2.pdf