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Survey on the consumption of cinnamon-containing foods and drinks by the UK population

Project Code: A01073

28/01/2011

University of Leeds
Apekey, T ; Khokhar, S

The purpose of this survey is to gather information on coumarin consumption by the UK population. The main dietary source of coumarin is cinnamon and cassia which naturally contain coumarin.

From the list of foods containing cinnamon, cassia and/or mixed spices, 80 foods were prioritised and then analysed for coumarin using HPLC. A Food Frequency Questionnaire, FFQ, was developed using this food list and a cinnamon survey was conducted in a representative sample of UK population including adults (n= 1011), children (n=162) and South Asians (n=100) using picture cards and portion sizes. Dietary exposures of coumarin were then calculated.
The foods containing the highest levels of coumarin were spices: ground cinnamon (1657 mg/kg), mixed spice (456 mg/kg) and garam masala (124.5 mg/kg in retail samples and 56.5 mg/kg in homemade samples). Some curry spices including, tandoori, Madras, curry spice, korma and tikka contained 52-63.6 mg/kg of coumarin whilst cinnamon stick contained 86.7mg/kg. Several foods did not contain coumarin above the detectable level of 1 mg/kg.
Average dietary exposure to coumarin in the UK population at the medium (i.e. 50th percentile) was 0.0018 mg/kg bw/day for adults and 0.0015 mg/kg bw/day for children; the South Asians group exposure was higher at 0.022 mg/kg bw/day. High level consumer exposure (97th percentile) was 0.023 mg/kg bw/day for adults, 0.012 mg/kg bw/day for children and 0.076 mg/kg bw/day for the South Asian population. All these exposures are less than the TDI for coumarin of 0.1 mg/kg bw/day.

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