# Coumarin in Mexican Vanilla

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coumarin-in-mexican-vanilla/23111>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 21, 2000, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coumarin-in-mexican-vanilla/23111 "2000-06-21T17:40:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kevin\_robbins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@kevin\_robbins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevin_robbins)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2000, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coumarin-in-mexican-vanilla/23111/1 "2000-06-21T17:40:36Z")

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Apparently, I am the last to find out that Mexico is  
the place to go to buy cheap vanilla. While looking  
for information on the internet, I came across an  
article that said vanilla from Mexico was contaminated  
with coumarin and the FDA approved confiscation of  
vanilla discovered at the border.

What is coumarin and how does it get into vanilla in  
the first place? Is it added intentionally? The FDA  
alert simply described it as a “poisonous or  
deleterious substance”. I understand poisonous, but  
how much coumarin would it take to cause serious  
injury to someone?

My mother-in-law dismissed the whole idea and brought  
back bottles of vanilla for herself and my wife.  
What’s the deal, should I give up on homemade desserts?

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**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2000, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coumarin-in-mexican-vanilla/23111/2 "2000-06-21T17:44:28Z")

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Hmmm. Apparently it is added intentionally:

[http://www.cloudnet.com/~djeans/Asides/coumarin.htm](http://www.cloudnet.com/~djeans/Asides/coumarin.htm)

I live in San Diego and we used to go shopping in Tijuana for cheap vanilla, etc. Guess I won’t be doing that anymore.