Overview "Selected Questions about coumarin in cinnamon and other foods"

What should the consumer bear in mind if he wishes to reduce the risks?

To avoid this tolerable daily coumarin intake being exceeded, larger amounts of foods with high coumarin levels should not be eaten.

If one takes the highest coumarin levels in cinnamon biscuits supplied to BfR at the beginning of October 2006, then the tolerable daily intake for infants could already be exhausted by their eating three star-shaped cinnamon biscuits if they contain the highest measured levels of coumarin and there are no other sources of coumarin. Adults would need to eat about 15 of them. BfR, therefore, recommends - especially in the run-up to Christmas - that cinnamon biscuits should be eaten in moderation and attention paid to the total amount consumed - also from other foods like, for instance, rice pudding with cinnamon.

Mass catering facilities for children and schools should orient themselves towards these findings and adapt their menus to the current situation. Under these circumstances, the managers of kindergartens and after-school facilities should only offer cinnamon-containing biscuits on a limited scale after talking to parents.