Thyme for Herbal Tea & Infusion Manufacturers | TANDOR

What Tea-Grade Thyme Actually Means for Infusion Manufacturers

Not all dried Thyme reaching the commodity market is suitable for consumer tea applications. Tea-grade Thyme is defined by three non-negotiable criteria: particle-size consistency appropriate for the infusion format (teabag, pyramid, loose-leaf), microbiological compliance within limits acceptable for food-ready herb products, and organoleptic integrity — meaning retained volatile-oil content, green-grey colour, and the characteristic thymol-forward aroma that consumers expect from a quality herbal infusion.

TANDOR sources Thyme with these criteria embedded at the point of procurement, not retrofitted after arrival.

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Forms and Cut Specifications That Matter for Infusion Production

Cut-and-Sifted (C/S) — the Production Standard

Cut-and-sifted (C/S) Thyme is the dominant format for teabag and pyramid-bag filling lines. The herb is mechanically cut and passed through calibrated sieves to remove fines (dust) and oversized stem fragments. Standard tea-grade C/S specifications typically target a particle size range of 1–4 mm, with fines content (passing through a defined mesh, commonly 0.5 mm or 0.355 mm) held below an agreed maximum — usually under 5–8% — to prevent filter-bag clogging and ensure even fill weight on high-speed packaging equipment.

• Mesh specification: negotiated per buyer; common requests are 1/4 or 1/8 cut
• Stem content: kept low; excess woody stem reduces soluble-solid yield and degrades cup quality
• Fines (dust) fraction: minimised to protect filling-machine accuracy and reduce waste

Whole Leaf / Rubbed

Whole or rubbed Thyme is preferred for loose-leaf blends and premium pyramid formats where visible herb integrity is a selling point. Whole-leaf material requires careful post-harvest handling — harvested at early-flowering stage when volatile-oil content (principally thymol and carvacrol) peaks — and gentle drying at controlled temperatures (typically below 40 °C for organic product) to avoid oil loss.

Powder

Powdered Thyme (80–100 mesh) has limited use in standard infusions but is relevant for functional beverage manufacturers incorporating Thyme extract solids or producing instant formats. Available on request; supplied with particle-size distribution data on CoA.

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Flavour and Colour Retention: Why Processing Conditions Matter

Volatile-oil retention is the primary quality differentiator between commodity and tea-grade Thyme. Thymol and carvacrol — the phenolic monoterpenes responsible for Thyme's characteristic flavour — are heat-labile. Drying temperature, duration, and post-drying storage conditions all affect essential-oil content measurable per European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.) monograph 0865 (Thymi herba), which sets a minimum essential-oil content of 1.2% v/m for the dried herb.

Colour retention (the characteristic grey-green appearance) is similarly sensitive to over-drying, UV exposure during outdoor drying, and oxidation during storage. TANDOR specifies indoor or shade-drying protocols with suppliers and requires colour assessment as part of incoming-quality inspection.

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Microbiological Limits and Sterilisation: The Critical Compliance Decision

Tea-grade herbal materials must meet EU food-safety microbiological standards applicable to dried herbs intended for direct infusion. The relevant framework is EU Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 (microbiological criteria for foodstuffs) as amended, alongside buyer-specific specifications that commonly tighten standard commodity limits.

Typical tea-grade targets buyers specify include:

• Total Aerobic Plate Count (TAPC): ≤ 10⁵ CFU/g
• Yeast and mould: ≤ 10³ CFU/g
• Enterobacteriaceae: ≤ 10² CFU/g
• Salmonella spp.: absent in 25 g
• E. coli: absent or ≤ 10 CFU/g

Steam Sterilisation vs Irradiation

For EU organic-certified product, steam sterilisation (also called steam treatment or continuous steam sterilisation) is the only decontamination method compatible with organic status. Irradiation of organic food is explicitly prohibited under EU Regulation (EU) 2018/848 (Article 24 and Annex II). For non-organic product, irradiation is permitted under EU Directive 1999/2/EC and its implementing directive 1999/3/EC, but many EU retail-facing buyers now contractually exclude it — requiring suppliers to confirm "non-irradiated" status on documentation.

Steam sterilisation carries a trade-off: brief exposure to saturated steam (typically 100–130 °C, seconds-range contact time) reduces microbial load effectively but can cause measurable volatile-oil loss and slight colour shift if parameters are not tightly controlled. TANDOR works with processing partners who validate steam-treatment parameters specifically for Thyme to balance microbial compliance against organoleptic quality, with pre- and post-treatment essential-oil content confirmed on the batch CoA.

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Certifications Relevant to EU Infusion Manufacturers

• EU Organic — Regulation (EU) 2018/848: Full supply-chain certification from farm through processing and trading. TANDOR holds EU-Organic operator status, enabling certified organic transactions. Organic Thyme is available from certified origins in the EU (including Romania, Spain, and France) and from select third countries with equivalence recognition.
• ISO 22000 / FSSC 22000: Food safety management system certification; required by most major tea blenders and private-label manufacturers.
• Kosher and Halal: Available on select batches; certification documents provided on request.
• GACP (Good Agricultural and Collection Practice): Aligned with WHO GACP guidelines for medicinal plants — relevant for buyers positioning product in the functional or wellness infusion segment.

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Origins, MOQ, and Sourcing Realities

TANDOR operates as a Romania-based EU sourcing intermediary with active supplier relationships across multiple Thyme-producing origins, including Romania (Danube Plain), Albania, Spain (Castile), France (Provence), and Morocco — each offering different harvest windows, pricing tiers, and certification availability. Multi-origin access allows buyers to maintain continuity when a single-origin crop fails or is delayed.

• Minimum Order Quantities: typically from 100 kg per lot for organic; 500 kg for conventional, subject to origin and season
• Lead times: ex-stock for core origins in season; 4–8 weeks for new-crop or certified organic lots
• Packaging: 10–25 kg paper sacks or cartons with inner poly liner; bulk big-bag (200–500 kg) available
• Certificate of Analysis per batch: moisture, ash, acid-insoluble ash, essential-oil content, microbiological panel, pesticide residues (per EU MRL Regulation (EC) No 396/2005), heavy metals — all standard

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Why Source Thyme Through TANDOR?

EU infusion manufacturers sourcing Thyme directly from single-country brokers carry origin-concentration risk. TANDOR's intermediary model provides access to vetted, audit-eligible suppliers across multiple origins, consolidated documentation (EU-Organic certificates, CoA, phytosanitary, non-irradiation declarations) in a single workflow, and a Romania-based EU legal entity — simplifying intra-EU trade compliance and reducing import-documentation burden for buyers inside the Single Market.