herbsandspices.food The reference guide to herbs and spices
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⚠️ Safety & allergens

Adulteration, contamination, allergens and the dose that makes the poison.

8 pages in this section

Coumarin in cinnamon
Why cassia and Ceylon cinnamon are not interchangeable for heavy users
Cassia cinnamon, the common supermarket kind, contains far more coumarin than Ceylon cinnamon. Normal cooking use is fine, but daily spoonfuls can exceed the tolerable in…
Extreme chilli risks
Superhot chillies are mostly just painful, but not always
Very hot chillies and capsaicin extracts are usually safe if miserable, but documented cases include vomiting, oesophageal tears, severe headaches and heart problems. Her…
Lead in spices
How a toxic metal gets into turmeric, cinnamon and chilli, and what regulators do about it
Lead can reach spices from polluted soil and processing equipment, and occasionally from deliberate colouring. The Bangladesh turmeric and 2023 US cinnamon cases show why…
Nutmeg toxicity
A pinch is harmless; a few teaspoons can make you very unwell
Nutmeg is safe in cooking quantities, but large amounts can cause nausea, palpitations, confusion and hallucinations lasting a day or more. Myristicin and elemicin are th…
Poisonous lookalikes
Wild garlic, hemlock and the plants that are mistaken for herbs
Several deadly or harmful plants look like wild herbs. Wild garlic is confused with lords-and-ladies and lily of the valley, and hemlock and hemlock water dropwort resemb…
Spice adulteration
Bulking, colouring and substitution, from sawdust to Sudan dyes
Spices are costly, often ground and traded through long supply chains, which makes them tempting to bulk out or recolour. Here are the best-documented cases and how to re…
Spice allergies
Mustard, celery and sesame are regulated allergens; most other spice reactions are rarer and harder to pin down
Three of the UK's 14 regulated allergens, mustard, celery and sesame, are spices or seeds. Other spice allergies exist but are rarer, and can hide behind the word "spices…
Spice contamination
Bacteria, moulds, filth and residues, and why most spices are treated before sale
Dried spices can carry salmonella, mould toxins and pesticide residues from open-air drying and long supply chains. Most are treated before sale, but a few precautions st…