Eating pastries sprinkled with plenty of cinnamon may not be a good idea because of coumarin, a naturally occurring toxic chemical found in Cassia cinnamon, the most common variety of the spice available in Europe and the U.S. When consumed in high doses, coumarin can cause liver damage in sensitive individuals.
In Denmark, where cinnamon rolls are a traditional baked product, bakers are told that their recipe for the kanelsnegle or cinnamon swirl are unhealthy and against the law because they contain levels of cinnamon that exceed the limit set by the European Union back in 2008. Surveys conducted by the Danish Food Administration have found that a large number of the rolls had too much cinnamon and exceeded the limit of 15 mg per kilogram of baked goods. As a result, Danish food authorities have told bakers to cut back on the spice in their swirls.
The reent move has Danish bakers worrying about the end of their centuries-old baking tradition. "We must recognize that to get a cinnamon roll ... to taste like cinnamon, we have to use more than the very small amounts allowed, or it's the end of the cinnamon roll as we know it," head of the Danish Baker's Association Hardy Christensen said in a press release.
Experts say adults would have to eat plenty of Cassia cinnamon to be at risk and that's about a teaspoon a day, according to the daily tolerable intake set by the European Food Safety Authority.
In the U.S., the bigger concern is the kids who eat cinnamon-heavy foods. A survey of U.S. food has found a few common cinnamon-flavored products, including breakfast cereals and granola bar in which the coumarin level in a single serving exceeds Europe's guidelines for a young child.
However, Dr. Ikhlas A. Khan, assistant director of the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi's School of Pharmacy who conducted a study of coumarin in Cassia Cinnamon, said there's no need to panic unless your child is on a cinnamon roll diet. According to him, only certain individuals are susceptible to liver issues from coumarin and if problems do occur, the toxicity is reversible.
