Cinnaban.

• Author: Shackford, Scott
• Position: Food police - Toxicity in cinnamon - Brief article

HAMLET WOULD have another reason to be depressed if he were alive today: European Union regulations are threatening the existence of a popular Danish pastry.

At the root of the controversy is the delicious bark scraping we know as cinnamon. In Denmark, a popular pastry called kanel-snegle is loaded with the spice--too much of it, according to the European Union.

A chemical found within cinnamon can be toxic in large doses to certain people. The E.U. set a maximum amount of this chemical that can exist in food, and the Danes' delights are over the line. Now bakers are being ordered to cut back the cinnamon...