Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University teamed up with tea companies to achieve a breakthrough in LED light withering technology

On November 4, Minbei Daily News reported that recently, the team of Professor Sun Yun of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and Yanba Tea Industry of Wuyi Mountain jointly published the latest research results on LED light withering technology in the well-known journal "FoodChemistry: X" in the field of food science. This study systematically reveals for the first time how artificial light sources can effectively replace sunlight withering by regulating the transformation of internal chemical substances in oolong tea, and can stably produce high-quality oolong tea even in rainy weather. Image source: Northern Fujian Daily It is reported that the production of Wuyi rock tea has been a key step in the production of Wuyi rock tea for a long time, especially the key "withering" link. However, the spring tea season and the rainy season frequently meet, and high-altitude tea areas are shrouded in clouds and fog all year round, which often results in the tea leaves not getting enough and suitable sunlight to wither, thus affecting the quality of the tea leaves. Faced with this common problem in the industry, the team of Professor Sun Yun of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University carried out industry-university-research cooperation with Yanba Tea Industry, combining the basics of scientific research with tea-making practice to jointly explore the innovative application of "photowithering technology". The research team took three representative oolong teas, "Chunlan", "Narcissus" and "Daphne", as the research objects, using multi-wavelength (380-780nm) LED combination light sources (6000lx intensity) to simulate sunlight withering, and used traditional methods as a control. Combining sensory evaluation, tea soup color difference analysis, electronic tongue detection and broadly targeted metabolomics, the mechanism of the impact of LED photowithering on non-volatile metabolites in oolong tea was systematically analyzed. To further explore the mechanism of quality improvement, the research team used a broadly targeted metabolomics approach for analysis. The results show that LED light withering can promote the transformation of bitter substances such as flavonoids, alkaloids, and bitter amino acids, while coordinating the proportion of fresh and sweet substances, thereby forming a mellow and full taste. LED light withering technology not only solves the weather dilemma of traditional oolong tea production, but also provides a new technical path for the entire tea industry to cope with natural challenges and achieve stable production.