CANCUN, Mexico That bargain bottle of Mexican vanilla may be dangerous to your health.

Mexico is pushing vanilla as a good buy for American tourists. But the vanilla may not be vanilla. It may be coumarin - tonka-bean extract - outlawed as a food additive in the United States since 1954 because it is a poisonous substance that can cause liver damage.

It's impossible to tell the difference between vanilla extract and coumarin without a laboratory test. They taste and smell the same, according ...