Brown HT

Brown HT is notable for histamine, salicylate, FODMAPs, tyramine and nickel. Clear on lactose, gluten, fructose, oligosaccharides, sorbitol, sucrose and oxalates.

Yes — Brown HT is high in histamine. Brown HT (E155) is the brown of chocolate-flavoured cakes and biscuits that contain little or no cocoa - it is there to make the colour the cocoa is not providing. An azo dye, but not one of the six carrying the children's warning. None of this is about histamine content: a colour carries none. Colours are on this page because the pseudoallergen-free elimination diet removes them as a class, and that diet is itself unproven in double-blind trials.

Yes — Brown HT is high in salicylate. A brown azo dye used in chocolate-flavoured products, and part of the synthetic colour group that salicylate-sensitive people react to.

Brown HT contains only low levels of FODMAPs. Brown HT is a synthetic azo dye, and there is no fermentable carbohydrate in it.

Brown HT contains only low levels of tyramine. Brown HT is a synthetic azo dye, and it contains no tyramine. It sits higher on the histamine axis than here, which is not a contradiction: that axis counts liberators - things that make the body release its own histamine - while this one counts content only. There is no tyramine liberator, because the body stores none to release. Amounts vary by brand and recipe, so always check the label of the exact product.