Pesticide Alert: Which Mate Brands to Avoid and How to Choose Well

The mate ritual is synonymous with health, but recent news calls for extra vigilance. In early 2026, emblematic brands such as Piporé were subject to large-scale recalls in France. The reason: levels of pesticides and anthraquinone far above European standards.

As mate enthusiasts, our role is to keep you informed: mate is not a classic infusion. Drinking it through slow extraction makes it easier for chemical residues to pass directly into your body. Here is our analysis to help you understand the risks and identify safe alternatives.

Important: Contrary to what you may read, importing conventional yerba mate into France does not involve systematic laboratory testing; border controls remain, to this day, partial and random.

Pesticides and slow extraction: why is mate a plant like no other?

To understand why health authorities are stepping up their controls, we need to look more closely at how we drink mate. Unlike a classic tea steeped for a few minutes, mate is enjoyed over time, often by re-brewing the same leaves several times.

This changes everything: if the plant contains pesticide residues, hot water acts as a solvent that extracts them continuously throughout your session. It is this way of drinking, through slow, repeated extraction, that makes demanding health controls essential.

The use of pesticides

The leaching phenomenon: continuous chemical extraction

The real risk lies not only in the presence of pesticides, but in the way they are ingested.

• Prolonged brewing: Mate leaves stay in contact with hot water for 45 to 90 minutes. The water acts as a powerful solvent that "leaches" the plant's fibers.
• Repeated cycles: By re-brewing the same leaves, you are performing slow extraction. This allows molecules such as chlorpyrifos or anthraquinone, lodged deep in the leaf, to be released gradually in an already dissolved form, making them easier for the digestive system to absorb.

Brewing mate, a ritual of its own

Concentration and quantity: the multiplier effect

The danger rests on a fact that is often overlooked: the dose.

• For a classic tea, you use 2 g of plant.
• For a traditional gourd, you use between 30 g and 50 g of yerba.

At an equal pesticide level, a mate drinker ingests a chemical load 15 to 25 times higher than a tea drinker. It is this massive concentration that makes compliance with European standards (MRLs) vital for your health.

Amount of mate used when preparing a gourd

Health risks and recalled mate brands: what you need to know

The French market has recently seen several yerba mate products withdrawn from sale. Understanding these recalls is essential to tell a "historic" brand apart from one that guarantees total food safety.

Why was Piporé mate recalled in 2025?

The Piporé case is emblematic. This brand, a pillar of Argentine production, was flagged by RappelConso (the official French recall registry) for two major reasons:

1. MRLs exceeded: The Maximum Residue Limits for pesticides authorized in Europe were breached.
2. Presence of anthraquinone: A pollutant resulting from uncontrolled industrial drying.

This recall highlights a reality that often goes unnoticed: a historic brand's reputation is no guarantee of its food safety. As mate is still a niche product in Europe, it too often escapes the systematic controls applied to other foodstuffs.

Yet when the authorities do examine these products, the findings are damning. A recent study revealed that almost all conventional (non-organic) mates from Argentina and Paraguay contained residues of pesticides strictly banned on European soil. In the absence of regular import controls, many brands remain on shelves even though they do not meet our health requirements. Choosing a brand that goes beyond official controls is therefore not a luxury, but a necessary precaution.

We would like to stress that this article is based exclusively on factual, documented sources: https://rappel.conso.gouv.fr/fiche-rappel/19948/Interne

Source RappelConso: https://rappel.conso.gouv.fr/fiche-rappel/19948/Interne

Another mate recalled in 2026: Kharta Khadra

It is worth noting that in January and February 2026, several batches from the Kharta Khadra brand (notably the Green and White Elaborada versions) were subject to a health recall in Europe, following the detection of excessive anthraquinone levels.

Far from being alarmist, the increase in these random controls is excellent news for public health. Now that mate has outgrown its "niche product" status to become a mainstream drink, it is subject to the most rigorous safety standards.

Source: https://rappel.conso.gouv.fr/fiche-rappel/21413/Interne

April 2026: The Amanda brand also withdrawn from sale

Continuing this heightened health vigilance, a new alert was triggered very recently, in April 2026. This time, certain batches from the well-known Amanda brand were targeted by a recall procedure on the European market.

This event shows once again that control authorities are keeping the pressure on imports. The safety net in place works impartially and effectively: no brand, whatever its historic standing on the South American market, escapes the strict analyses designed to guarantee impeccable quality for consumers.

Source: https://rappel.conso.gouv.fr/fiche-rappel/21970/Interne

Pesticides and pollutants: what analyses reveal about conventional yerbas

In non-certified brands, analyses regularly reveal three families of substances:

• Anthraquinone (suspected carcinogen): It permeates the leaves during drying with poorly adjusted wood burners. It is the #1 enemy of healthy mate.
• Chlorpyrifos (neurotoxic): Strictly banned in France and Europe, this insecticide is still used in intensive farming in South America.
• Fungicides (endocrine disruptors): Such as mancozeb, sprayed to prevent mold during transport, released in large amounts during brewing.

Our advice as mate specialists

As experts, our role is to give you the best possible guidance on what you drink. While every consumer is free to choose, we have decided never to offer conventional South American brands in our catalog - for the same reasons that led us to carefully select a yerba that meets our specifications: a mate with zero pesticides, dried without smoke.

Smoke-free drying of our yerba

A lack of controls that puts you at risk

The observation is simple: most historic brands (like Piporé) operate on intensive farming models where pesticides banned in Europe are commonplace. As mate remains a niche product in France, controls are rare. Drinking these classic brands means betting that your bag didn't slip through the net.

Safety is not optional

In our view, drinking a plant that cannot be washed, that is brewed for an hour and in high doses (50 g per day), demands absolute purity. "Cheap" brands cut corners on:

• Laboratory analyses: which are expensive and would often reveal non-compliance.
• Organic certification: the only guarantee against neurotoxins like chlorpyrifos.
• Smoke-free drying (Sin Humo): essential to avoid carcinogenic smoke residues.

Our duty to warn you

We are not trying to lecture - we are trying to be transparent. Conventional brands prioritize yield and low prices. We prioritize your health. Choosing a certified organic, smoke-free dried alternative is the only guarantee that your brew releases nothing but the benefits of the plant.

To go further, discover our certified organic yerbas, lab-tested and dried without smoke: Organic Buenos Aires Mate 1 kg, Organic Discovery Pack and Organic Green Mate 1 kg.