2013-14 Coumarin in dried beverage mixes, breads, baking mixes, spice mixes, dried tea, baked goods, and breakfast foods
Targeted surveys are a means used by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to focus its surveillance activities on areas of highest risk. Targeted surveys have been incorporated into the CFIA's regular surveillance activities as a valuable tool for generating baseline information on foods and/or hazards that are not addressed by other Agency activities.
The main objectives of this targeted survey were to:
- generate baseline surveillance data on the levels of coumarin in selected domestic and imported cinnamon-containing products available on the Canadian retail market,
- compare, where feasible, the prevalence of coumarin in foods targeted in this survey with that of similar products in previous surveys on coumarin and the scientific literature.
Coumarin is a natural, fragrant compound found in plants such as cinnamon, tonka beans, and sweet clover. Coumarin was utilized as a flavouring agent in the food and perfume industry for many years until evidence related to its toxicological properties and potential adverse effects to the liver led to its use in food being discontinued or banned in a number of countries, such as Canada and the United States. The direct addition of coumarin to food is not permitted in Canada. It is understood that low exposure to coumarin from natural sources is expected and not anticipated to represent a health concern.
The 2013-2014 CFIA Coumarin survey targeted domestic and imported products containing cinnamon. A total of 749 samples were collected from retail stores in 6 Canadian cities between May 2013 and February 2014. The samples collected included dried beverage mixes, breads, baking mixes, spice mixes, dried tea, baked goods, oatmeal, and adult, children and infant breakfast cereals. All products sampled contained cinnamon in their list of ingredients.
Coumarin was detected in 95% of the survey samples. This is expected, as all products were known to contain cinnamon, and cinnamon is known to naturally contain low concentrations of coumarin. The detected coumarin levels ranged from 0.1 mg/kg to 2510 mg/kg (reported as parts per million in previous reports). The highest concentration of coumarin was observed in a pumpkin pie spice mix sample (2510 mg/kg).
The prevalence and levels of coumarin in product types sampled in the current survey were compared with results in the previous coumarin targeted surveys. The detected coumarin levels in spice mixes, dried tea, and baked goods were comparable to levels reported in previous surveys and scientific literature.
The current as well as the 2011-2012 FSAP survey results were provided to Health Canada. Health Canada determined that the levels of coumarin observed are not expected to pose a concern to human health, therefore no product recalls were carried out.
Datasets available for download
Additional Info
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Last Updated | October 20, 2025, 02:56 (UTC) |
| Created | October 20, 2025, 02:56 (UTC) |
|
Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
|
|
|
Title
Title for the Dataset.
|
2013-14 Coumarin in dried beverage mixes, breads, baking mixes, spice mixes, dried tea, baked goods, and breakfast foods |
|
Description
A description of the dataset.
|
Targeted surveys are a means used by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to focus its surveillance activities on areas of highest risk. Targeted surveys have been incorporated into the CFIA's regular surveillance activities as a valuable tool for generating baseline information on foods and/or hazards that are not addressed by other Agency activities. The main objectives of this targeted survey were to:
Coumarin is a natural, fragrant compound found in plants such as cinnamon, tonka beans, and sweet clover. Coumarin was utilized as a flavouring agent in the food and perfume industry for many years until evidence related to its toxicological properties and potential adverse effects to the liver led to its use in food being discontinued or banned in a number of countries, such as Canada and the United States. The direct addition of coumarin to food is not permitted in Canada. It is understood that low exposure to coumarin from natural sources is expected and not anticipated to represent a health concern. The 2013-2014 CFIA Coumarin survey targeted domestic and imported products containing cinnamon. A total of 749 samples were collected from retail stores in 6 Canadian cities between May 2013 and February 2014. The samples collected included dried beverage mixes, breads, baking mixes, spice mixes, dried tea, baked goods, oatmeal, and adult, children and infant breakfast cereals. All products sampled contained cinnamon in their list of ingredients. Coumarin was detected in 95% of the survey samples. This is expected, as all products were known to contain cinnamon, and cinnamon is known to naturally contain low concentrations of coumarin. The detected coumarin levels ranged from 0.1 mg/kg to 2510 mg/kg (reported as parts per million in previous reports). The highest concentration of coumarin was observed in a pumpkin pie spice mix sample (2510 mg/kg). The prevalence and levels of coumarin in product types sampled in the current survey were compared with results in the previous coumarin targeted surveys. The detected coumarin levels in spice mixes, dried tea, and baked goods were comparable to levels reported in previous surveys and scientific literature. The current as well as the 2011-2012 FSAP survey results were provided to Health Canada. Health Canada determined that the levels of coumarin observed are not expected to pose a concern to human health, therefore no product recalls were carried out. |
|
Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
|
|
|
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
|
|
|
Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
|
|
|
Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
|
|
|
Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
|
2023-05-12 |
|
Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
|
|
|
Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
|
|
|
GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
|
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
|
Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
|
|
|
License
License used to access the dataset.
|
Open Government Licence - Canada |
|
Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
|
|
|
Location
Location of the dataset.
|
https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/c3675987-71ae-493c-b9be-c2222301ce4f |
|
Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
|
|
|
Owner
Owner of the dataset.
|
Canadian Food Inspection Agency | Agence canadienne d'inspection des aliments |
|
Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
|
|
|
Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
|
|
|
Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
|
|
|
Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
|
cfia.opendatapublishing-publicationdedonneesouvertes.acia@inspection.gc.ca |
|
Author
Author of the dataset.
|
|
|
Author Email
Email of the author.
|
|
|
Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
|
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
|
Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
|
|
|
Language
Language(s) of the dataset
|
|
|
Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
|
|
|
Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
|
|
|
Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
|
|
|
Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
|
|
|
Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
|
|
|
Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
|
|
|
Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
|
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
|
Version
Version of the datatset
|
None |
|
Source
Source of the dataset.
|
None |
|
Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
|
|
|
Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
|
|
|
Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
|
|
|
Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
|
|
|
Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
|
|
|
Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
|
|
|
GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
|
|
|
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
|
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
|
Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
|
|
|
Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
|
|
|
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
|
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
|
Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
|
|
|
Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
|
|
|
Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
|
|
|
Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
|
|
|
Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
|
|
|
Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
|
|
|
Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
|
|
|
Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.
|
0 Comments