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Coumarin, the illegal chemical causing Americans to miss out on a sweet treat.

Tonka beans are a well–loved and occasionally used ingredient in both Canada and Europe as delicious sweeter. But the FDA has kept their 60+ year ban on the spice; what are these mysterious beans and why do American chefs need to use illegal means to obtain them?

Even Michelin starred chefs have a bit of renegade smuggler in them; for years, chefs from top US restaurants, like New York City’sLe Bernard, have been buyingtonka𲹲Բto spice up their food despite the beans having been banned by the Food and Drug Administration.Whenٳܻ徱showed that high levels ofcoumarin, theflavourdzdzܲԻtonka𲹲Բ, were leading to貹ٴdzٴdz澱ٲindogs andrats(chemical drivenliverdamage), the FDA chose to outright ban thebeansfrom commercial use.Buttonka𲹲Բ remain a well-loved and occasionally used ingredient inbothCanada andEurope; Montreal’sBouillionBilkcurrentlyuses it in a chocolate pastry dessert, and the famous Canadian Chef MarcLepineand owner of Ottawa’sAtelierrestaurant,has used it experimentallyforyears.Sowhat exactlyare thesemysteriousbeansandwhy doAmericanchefs need to use illegal means to obtainthem?

Thedipteryxodorata,orcumarutree,nativeto South America, baresthesmall prune-liketonkaseeds. Renowned for their indescribable smell, the bean shavingsare usedcommonly in sweet dishes as a flavor additivelike vanilla.Bean extractsare also ingredients in many perfumes, cosmetics,detergentsand even tobacco and e-cigarettes. The French use the expression"ھètonka, a pun on the French wordDzԴèfor “bean”, to describe the intense passion that chef’sandڳܳ’salikeshare for this sweet flavor.

Coumarin, oris 1,2-benzopyrone,occurs naturallytonka𲹲Բ and cinnamon, butcanalsobe found in trace amountsin bison grass, green tea, carrots, and even some beers.Poisoning bycoumarinis extremely rare and has only occurred in clinical settings, where highdoses of the chemicalwere medically administeredas treatments forlymphedemaand some cancers.Recently researchers foundthat subgroups of humans might be more susceptible to the hepatotoxic effects ofthe chemical, but the mechanism for why this might be is unknown.Even with an added risk, heavy consumers of the compound barely reach levels of threatening exposure. Accordingly,the FDA ban on this substancehas beenhighly criticizedsince it is very unlikely that anyonecould be exposedto enoughcoumarinfromtonka𲹲Բtocauseliver damage.Ithas been estimatedthatevery daywe consumeabout 0.06mg/kg of the substance daily through our diet and cosmetics. Thisfallssafelyunder the 2004 tolerable daily food intake (TDI) set by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)at0.1mg/kg daily. For afully grownadult toresearch this threshold,they would need to consume about 2400 plates oftonkabeanflavoureddesserts, in which case liver damagewouldprobablynot be their major concern.

In Canada, directly addingcoumarinto food is illegal, but consumingit throughother spices, liketonka𲹲Բ, is not.One of the most common ways thatcoumarinmakes its way into our diets is actually through cinnamon, an extremely popular spice,second only to black pepper. There are two kinds of cinnamon,Ceylon (most from Sri Lanka known astrue cinnamon), and cassia (the cinnamon imposter from China and Indonesia).It isnearly impossible for consumers to tell the difference between the powered substances, savegeographic information on thepackage. Both containcoumarin, though the fake stuff has greater concentrationsthan the Sri Lankanvariety(1%in cassia and only about0.004%inceylon).Consuming incredible amounts of cassia cinnamon might increase the risk ofcoumarininducedhepatotoxicity,buteven to reach the recommended TDI ofcoumarinin cassia,onewould need to consume 2g of cinnamon daily for several weeks.T󲹳’sabout 24 standard cinnamon cookies every day for at least 3 weeks!Ina 2012/2013survey,Health Canada found thatthroughout the country, concentrations ofcoumarinin cinnamon products were not high enough tobe consideredthreatening to humanhealth.

Thusas long as you’re notundergoingdaily “cinnamon challenges”, you’re quite safe to enjoy yourcoumarinflavored special desserts, just not 2400servings on any given day.

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