Cinnamon: Species, Flavor, Coumarin and Lead Alerts

That jar labeled “cinnamon” could hold the bark of any of several different trees, and the split that matters most in your kitchen is Ceylon versus cassia. Cassia is the type you’ll most often find in North America, and it carries far more coumarin, a natural compound European regulators limit. As sticks, the two are usually easy to tell apart: a Ceylon stick in cross-section looks like a cut cigar. Ground cinnamon gives you no such clue, and it has also been the subject of a run of U.S. Food and Drug Administration lead alerts since 2024.

At a glance

Ceylon and cassia: what the names mean

Ceylon cinnamon is often called “true” cinnamon. It grows mainly in Sri Lanka, while cassia is the type you’ll most often find in North America. “Cassia” is a trade term that covers more than one species: the Chinese tree (C. aromaticum, still widely labeled C. cassia), the Indonesian C. burmanni, and the Vietnamese C. loureiroi. Kew’s Plants of the World Online currently treats C. aromaticum as the accepted name for the Chinese species.¹ For the individual types, see cassia cinnamon, Korintje cinnamon (Indonesian), Saigon cinnamon (Vietnamese) and Ceylon cinnamon, and the side-by-side pages Ceylon vs cassia and Saigon vs Ceylon.

You can usually tell them apart as sticks. BfR, Germany’s risk-assessment agency, notes that a Ceylon stick in cross-section looks like a cut cigar.² Ground cinnamon gives you no such clue, so the label matters (see Buying, below).

Flavor and aroma

Cinnamon tastes sweet, warm and woody, with a slightly hot edge on the tongue. CBI describes Ceylon as the milder and finer of the two and cassia as rougher and less fragrant.⁵ Those are descriptions, not measurements.

The main compound in bark oil is cinnamaldehyde, but the published ranges don’t agree. One review puts it at 65–80% of bark oil,⁶ another at about 49.9–62.8%.⁷ They come from different reviews, so they sit side by side here, not averaged. Cinnamyl acetate is another named part of the bark and fruit oils. The leaf oil is a different product altogether, dominated by eugenol (one review gives 70–95% in leaf oil).⁶

Origin and history

A lot of cinnamon’s popular history floats around without traceable sources, so we’ve kept only what we could check.

The best-documented chapter is the Sri Lankan trade under European powers. A Leiden University history of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) describes how the company set out to win a monopoly on cinnamon from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), at the Portuguese’s expense. In 1638 the Dutch signed a treaty with the king of Kandy, who was at war with the Portuguese, and the same year a VOC fleet took Batticaloa and Trincomalee. The alliance pushed the Portuguese off the island entirely when their last stronghold, Jaffna, fell in 1658. A specialized caste of cinnamon peelers did the harvesting, and for a long time the bark came from wild trees. The VOC didn’t introduce cinnamon plantations until after 1780. Dutch rule on Ceylon ended after war broke out between the Dutch Republic and England in 1795.⁸

You’ll often read that cinnamon was traded in the Middle East by 2000 BC, used in Egyptian embalming, or kept artificially scarce by Arab traders who hid where it came from. We couldn’t find a source that meets this site’s standard for any of it, so we don’t repeat it as fact.

How it is used

In Europe, cinnamon goes mostly into baked goods and sweets, hot drinks, herbal infusions and mulled wine, and it’s a key ingredient in Indian preparations like garam masala and masala chai. It also turns up in lots of spice blends; see garam masala, ras el hanout, Chinese five-spice powder, pumpkin pie spice and apple pie spice.

Ground cinnamon spreads evenly through batters, doughs and spice rubs. Whole sticks suit liquids and slow cooking. Simmer them in milk, syrups, braises and rice, or fry them briefly in oil at the start of a curry, then fish them out before serving. For when to use which, see ground cinnamon vs cinnamon sticks. Overdid it? See too much cinnamon.

Buying and quality

Know which type you’re buying. If you want low-coumarin cinnamon, BfR advises choosing Ceylon and notes that some products say “Ceylon cinnamon” right on the pack.² Plenty don’t. In a Czech study of 60 ground cinnamon samples across 12 brands, not one was labeled with its botanical source.⁹

Whole sticks are easier to check. That layered, cigar-like cross-section means Ceylon; ground spice gives you nothing to look at. CBI notes that ground cinnamon is more open to microbial contamination and fraud than whole.⁵

Protected origin. Ceylon Cinnamon from Sri Lanka received the country’s first EU Protected Geographical Indication in 2022, according to CBI.⁵

We haven’t yet checked a primary-source grade table for Ceylon quills.

Storage

Keep cinnamon airtight, away from heat, light and moisture. We found no primary source with a shelf-life figure for cinnamon, and most of the figures floating around can’t be traced. For what is known about spice shelf life generally, see how long spices last.

Safety

Coumarin

Coumarin occurs naturally in cinnamon, at much higher levels in the cassia types than in Ceylon.²¹⁰

The tolerable daily intake. EFSA set a tolerable daily intake (TDI) of 0.1 mg of coumarin per kg of body weight in 2004 and kept it after re-evaluating the evidence in 2008.¹¹ BfR uses the same value and says it also covers especially sensitive people. The worry is the liver. When coumarin was given as a medicine over a few weeks, relatively low doses caused liver damage in a small group of especially sensitive people, usually reversibly.² NCCIH similarly notes reported interactions between coumarin in cassia and the liver, and says prolonged use of cassia could be a problem for people with liver disease.¹²

How much coumarin is in cinnamon. These figures come from different sample sets, so don’t merge them:

We couldn’t confirm a published numeric range for Ceylon cinnamon. Our sources describe it only as containing “hardly any” coumarin,⁷ traces,¹⁰ or low levels.²

What that means in teaspoons. BfR calculates that a 60 kg adult reaches the TDI by eating 2 g a day of cassia with average coumarin content, and a 15 kg child by eating 0.5 g.¹³ That’s a daily, long-term figure, not a one-off limit, and it assumes average cassia. Coumarin varies so much between samples that the real number for any given jar is unknown.

EU limits in finished foods. Since 2011 the EU has capped coumarin in ready-to-eat foods.¹³ The maximum levels are:¹⁴

These limits apply to foods in the EU, not to cinnamon sold as a spice.¹⁴ We found no equivalent U.S. coumarin limit for cinnamon.

Lead in ground cinnamon (U.S., 2023–2026)

Background. In October 2023, apple cinnamon fruit purée pouches made in Ecuador and sold in the U.S. under the WanaBana, Weis and Schnucks brands were recalled after being linked to lead poisoning in young children.¹⁵ FDA’s investigation centered on ground cinnamon from Ecuador supplied by Negasmart to Austrofoods, which FDA names as the manufacturer of the apple purée and applesauce products. Lead in that cinnamon measured 2,270 to 5,110 parts per million (ppm).³

March 2024 alert. After the pouch recall, FDA surveyed ground cinnamon sold in discount retail stores, testing for lead and chromium; samples were collected by the Maryland and Missouri health departments. On 6 March 2024 it advised consumers to discard specific lots from six brands, with lead from 2.03 to 3.4 ppm.³¹⁵ FDA said no illnesses had been reported from those products.¹⁵

July 2024 alert and later additions. A second alert, first issued on 30 July 2024, was based on testing by state programs confirmed by FDA. It was expanded several times, most recently on 28 September 2026.⁴ The alert’s summary gives a lead range of 2.03 to 7.68 ppm and refers to 11 brands, but its product table, as updated, lists 21 brands, one of them at 10.7 ppm.⁴ FDA advises consumers not to eat, sell or serve the listed products, to discard them, and to talk to a healthcare provider if they are worried about exposure.³⁴

The brands FDA lists. Names and lead results below are as FDA gives them, and where FDA reports more than one sample, we show every result. Each listing covers specific lots, codes or best-by dates, which you’ll find on FDA’s pages. The July 2024 alert keeps getting updated, so check FDA’s page for the current list before relying on this one.

*FDA’s update log gives no later date for these brands, so they appear to date from the original 30 July 2024 alert; the page does not say which products the original alert listed.

Scope. These are specific lots of specific products, not a measurement of cinnamon on U.S. shelves as a whole. FDA’s 2024 statements do not give a numeric action level for lead in cinnamon.¹⁵

Health claims

Cinnamon is likely safe in the amounts you’d use to flavor food. Larger amounts or long-term use are most often linked to digestive problems or allergic reactions, and cinnamon oil or powder on the skin can cause irritation.¹²

The claim that cinnamon controls blood sugar isn’t settled. NCCIH says it is unclear whether cinnamon supplements help with diabetes or weight loss, partly because many studies do not make clear which species or plant part was tested.¹² A 2013 systematic review of Ceylon cinnamon found reported antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and blood-glucose-lowering effects, but mostly from laboratory and animal work; it described human data as sparse and called for randomized trials.⁷ Anyone taking medicines should talk to a healthcare provider before using cinnamon as a supplement.¹²

Substitutes and comparisons

• Cinnamon substitutes
• Ceylon vs cassia cinnamon
• Saigon vs Ceylon cinnamon
• Cinnamon vs nutmeg
• Cloves vs cinnamon
• Cassia buds