Dairy and histamine: 49 foods rated

Blue cheeses are among the very highest-histamine foods measured, and the reason is structural rather than incidental: the mould is grown THROUGH the paste, on purpose, along channels pierced into it, so the protein breakdown happens everywhere at once instead of from the surface inwards. A small portion is still a large dose.

• Fox PF, Cheese - Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology, vol. 1
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Brie ripens from the outside in, and the histamine follows the ripening front: the chalky centre of a young brie is a different food from the runny edge of an over-ripe one. This is the rare case where you can see the level with your eyes - buy it firm and eat it early.

• Fox PF, Cheese - Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology, vol. 1
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Camembert is smaller than brie and ripens faster for it - the same mould, less distance to travel - so it reaches the runny stage in weeks rather than months. The smell that tells you it is ready is ammonia from protein breakdown, and that same breakdown is what produces the amines.

• Fox PF, Cheese - Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology, vol. 1
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Cheddar is at the top of this axis for one reason: it is aged, and histamine climbs with ageing about as reliably in cheddar as in any cheese - mild at three months, extra-mature past two years, and the wrapper tells you which. There is no cheddar-wide figure worth quoting; there is a figure for the block in front of you, and its age is the best guide to it. Melting it changes nothing: histamine survives every temperature a kitchen reaches. Across a shelf of retail cheeses the spread is enormous and the variety is a weak predictor. Pasteurisation, starter culture, salt and ripening time are the real variables.

• Mayer H et al., J Chromatogr A 2010
• Linares D et al., Front Microbiol 2012
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Emmental is the cheese whose bacteria are named on the process: propionibacteria make the holes and the sweet flavour, and they work for months in a warm room. Long ripening at warm temperature is the combination that builds amines fastest, which is why a cheese that tastes mild sits high here - the taste does not track the histamine.

• Fox PF, Cheese - Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology, vol. 1
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Feta is not a soft-ripened cheese at all: it ripens submerged in brine, for two to three months, and the brine is the whole histamine difference. Salt selects for salt-tolerant bacteria and slows the rest, so feta measures below a bloomy-rind cheese of the same age - and a feta sold in vacuum pack rather than in brine is younger still.

• Fox PF, Cheese - Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology, vol. 1
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Gorgonzola comes in two versions that are not the same food for histamine, and the DOP puts a number on each: fifty days of ripening at the least for DOLCE, which stays soft and mild, and eighty for PICCANTE, which is firm and sharp. Buying the sweet one is the only lever this cheese offers, and it is a real one. A month more of ripening is a month more of everything this axis counts.

• AOP and DOP specifications of the cheeses named, for the minimum ageing
• Fox PF, Cheese - Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology, vol. 1
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Gouda covers the widest histamine span of any cheese here, and the name alone tells you nothing: a jong gouda is a four-week cheese, a belegen six months, an overjarige three years, and the gap between them is larger than the gap between two different cheeses. Read the age grade, not the name. Extra-aged, smoked and flavoured goudas are the ones to leave - the first for the ageing, the other two because the treatment brings its own reasons on top. Across a shelf of retail cheeses the spread is enormous and the variety is a weak predictor. Pasteurisation, starter culture, salt and ripening time are the real variables.

• Mayer H et al., J Chromatogr A 2010
• Linares D et al., Front Microbiol 2012
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Gruyère is aged five to eighteen months and washed on the rind through all of it, and washing encourages the surface bacteria that break protein down into histamine. That is why a cave-aged gruyère measures well above a young one and why the age on the label is the number to read.

• Fox PF, Cheese - Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology, vol. 1
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

"Hard cheese" on an ingredient list is a category rather than a cheese, and it is used precisely when the maker does not want to name one - in sauces, ready meals and grated mixtures. Assume the long-aged end of the range, and its histamine with it, because that is what gets bought in bulk for flavour.

• Fox PF, Cheese - Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology, vol. 1
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Parmigiano Reggiano is aged 12 months at the least and commonly 24 or 36, and histamine rises with ageing - EFSA ranked the fermented categories but could not put numbers on them, so read that as a direction rather than a rate, with a well-aged wheel as the reference point at the top of this axis. Its specification forbids additives and selected cultures, so nothing slows the bacteria down. A grating is a small portion, and that is the only thing in its favour.

• Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano DOP specifications, for the minimum ageing and the lysozyme provision
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006, for the amines
• EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards, EFSA Journal 2011, for the doses — 50 mg histamine, 600 mg tyramine without MAOI treatment and 6 mg with a classical one

Raclette is a washed-rind cheese aged three to six months, which would place its histamine in the middle of this group - but it is eaten melted, by the scraping, in quantities no one would eat cold. The portion is what puts it where it is, not the concentration.

• Fox PF, Cheese - Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology, vol. 1
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Roquefort stacks three things that each raise the level: sheep's milk, richer in protein than cow's; Penicillium roqueforti grown right through the paste; and the ageing its AOP requires - fourteen days at least in the Combalou caves and three months in all before it may be sold, usually longer. It is habitually cited among the highest-histamine cheeses measured. That ageing is a floor and not a typical age: the wheel in front of you may be far past it.

• AOP and DOP specifications of the cheeses named, for the minimum ageing
• Fox PF, Cheese - Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology, vol. 1
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Sheep's-milk cheeses - pecorino, manchego, ossau-iraty - are made from a milk richer in protein and fat than cow's, and they are usually aged long. More protein and more time is more for the bacteria that build histamine to work on. The animal does not change the mechanism; the recipe does.

• Fox PF, Cheese - Chemistry, Physics and Microbiology, vol. 1
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Buttermilk is cultured, so bacteria have been at work — and wherever bacteria ferment a protein food, some histamine follows. Far below aged cheese, but above plain milk. Pasteurisation, starter culture, salt, pH and ripening time decide more than the name on the label.

• Mayer H.K. et al., J Chromatogr A 1217 (2010) 3251-3257, twenty amines by UPLC in 58 retail cheeses
• Linares D.M. et al., Front Microbiol 3 (2012) 180, factors influencing biogenic amine accumulation in dairy

Edam is a washed-curd cheese, and that is the detail that places it: part of the whey is replaced with water during the make, which washes out lactose and stops the acidity going as far as a cheddar's - a less acid, less broken-down paste makes fewer amines. A young edam is a four-week cheese and sits low; the aged version, sold as a harder and deeper yellow wheel, has had months more and behaves like the other aged cheeses here. The name covers both, so the age is what you read. Across a shelf of retail cheeses the spread is enormous and the variety is a weak predictor. Pasteurisation, starter culture, salt and ripening time are the real variables.

• Mayer H et al., J Chromatogr A 2010
• Linares D et al., Front Microbiol 2012
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Fontina is ripened eighty days at the minimum under its DOP - short, for this group - and that is the reason the group has no single histamine answer. A semi-soft cheese ripened for a season measures well below a hard cheese ripened for the twelve months a parmigiano's specification asks of it, and fontina is the clearest example of that on this list. Across a shelf of retail cheeses the spread is enormous and the variety is a weak predictor. Pasteurisation, starter culture, salt and ripening time are the real variables.

• Mayer H et al., J Chromatogr A 2010
• Linares D et al., Front Microbiol 2012
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Grana Padano is parmigiano's near neighbour and sits below it for a reason the specification gives: it permits lysozyme, up to 2.5 g per 100 kg, added to stop unwanted fermentation - and suppressing bacteria suppresses the amines they make. Its minimum ageing, 9 months against parmigiano's 12, is the smaller half of the difference. Neither fact is a histamine measurement; both are why two cheeses that look alike are not the same object.

• Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano DOP specifications, for the minimum ageing and the lysozyme provision
• EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards, EFSA Journal 2011, and McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006, for the amines

Kefir is a live culture of yeasts and bacteria, and it cuts both ways: some of those organisms produce amines and some degrade them, which is why kefir is the one fermented dairy that is sometimes tolerated and sometimes not. What you can control is time - a short ferment and a small glass, from a batch that has not been sitting. It keeps working in the fridge.

• Comas-Baste et al., Biomolecules 2020
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006

Lactose-free cheese is the clearest demonstration that these two axes are unrelated: the lactose is removed by adding lactase, which does nothing to the protein - and histamine comes from the protein. A lactose-free aged cheddar has exactly the histamine of an aged cheddar.

• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007
• Zuberbier et al., EAACI/GA2LEN urticaria guideline

Buffalo mozzarella is low because it is a fresh cheese eaten within days, and it is ageing that builds amines in cheese. Histamine in dairy is a storage measurement, not a recipe one. Pasteurisation, starter culture, salt, pH and ripening time decide more than the name on the label.

• Mayer H.K. et al., J Chromatogr A 1217 (2010) 3251-3257, twenty amines by UPLC in 58 retail cheeses
• Linares D.M. et al., Front Microbiol 3 (2012) 180, factors influencing biogenic amine accumulation in dairy

Cream is low because fat carries no amines and fresh cream has had no time to develop any. Histamine in dairy is a storage measurement, not a recipe one. Milk is not a fermented food, so its histamine depends on how it was kept rather than on how it was made - and that is exactly what the study behind this level varied: STORAGE CONDITION. A dairy product's place on this axis is a question about the cold chain.

• Szczyrba A. et al., Med Og Nauk Zdr 30:2 (2024) 137-145, histamine in cow's milk by storage condition

Crème fraîche is low because the culture is a short one and stops at the thickening, well before amines accumulate. Histamine in dairy is a storage measurement, not a recipe one. Pasteurisation, starter culture, salt, pH and ripening time decide more than the name on the label.

• Mayer H.K. et al., J Chromatogr A 1217 (2010) 3251-3257, twenty amines by UPLC in 58 retail cheeses
• Linares D.M. et al., Front Microbiol 3 (2012) 180, factors influencing biogenic amine accumulation in dairy

Goat cheese is low because fresh goat cheese is low, but an aged one is not - this is the axis where the same cheese name covers two different foods. Histamine in dairy is a storage measurement, not a recipe one. Pasteurisation, starter culture, salt, pH and ripening time decide more than the name on the label.

• Mayer H.K. et al., J Chromatogr A 1217 (2010) 3251-3257, twenty amines by UPLC in 58 retail cheeses
• Linares D.M. et al., Front Microbiol 3 (2012) 180, factors influencing biogenic amine accumulation in dairy

Grated mozzarella is a young cheese - low in histamine as made - turned into a high-surface, long-shelf-life product: grating multiplies the exposed area, and the anti-caking starch keeps it apart for weeks. Nobody has measured the bag against a block grated at home, so take that as reasoning rather than a figure: more surface and more time is the mechanism that governs amines everywhere else, and it is the only reason this sits above plain mozzarella.

• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007
• Zuberbier et al., EAACI/GA2LEN urticaria guideline

Greek yogurt is low because straining removes whey and concentrates the solids, but the short culture had produced little to concentrate. Histamine in dairy is a storage measurement, not a recipe one. Pasteurisation, starter culture, salt, pH and ripening time decide more than the name on the label.

• Mayer H.K. et al., J Chromatogr A 1217 (2010) 3251-3257, twenty amines by UPLC in 58 retail cheeses
• Linares D.M. et al., Front Microbiol 3 (2012) 180, factors influencing biogenic amine accumulation in dairy

Lactose-free yogurt is low because adding lactase changes the sugar and nothing else - the culture and its amines are the same. Histamine in dairy is a storage measurement, not a recipe one. Pasteurisation, starter culture, salt, pH and ripening time decide more than the name on the label.

• Mayer H.K. et al., J Chromatogr A 1217 (2010) 3251-3257, twenty amines by UPLC in 58 retail cheeses
• Linares D.M. et al., Front Microbiol 3 (2012) 180, factors influencing biogenic amine accumulation in dairy

Milk powder is low because drying stops the bacteria, so the powder holds whatever the milk had and adds nothing. Histamine in dairy is a storage measurement, not a recipe one. Pasteurisation, starter culture, salt, pH and ripening time decide more than the name on the label.

• Mayer H.K. et al., J Chromatogr A 1217 (2010) 3251-3257, twenty amines by UPLC in 58 retail cheeses
• Linares D.M. et al., Front Microbiol 3 (2012) 180, factors influencing biogenic amine accumulation in dairy

Skim milk powder is low because the fat is gone and the bacteria with it, and dry powder produces no amines. Histamine in dairy is a storage measurement, not a recipe one. Milk is not a fermented food, so its histamine depends on how it was kept rather than on how it was made - and that is exactly what the study behind this level varied: STORAGE CONDITION. A dairy product's place on this axis is a question about the cold chain.

• Szczyrba A. et al., Med Og Nauk Zdr 30:2 (2024) 137-145, histamine in cow's milk by storage condition

Skimmed milk is low because milk measured on the day it is opened is low, and rises over the days it spends open in the fridge. Histamine in dairy is a storage measurement, not a recipe one. Pasteurisation, starter culture, salt, pH and ripening time decide more than the name on the label.

• Mayer H.K. et al., J Chromatogr A 1217 (2010) 3251-3257, twenty amines by UPLC in 58 retail cheeses
• Linares D.M. et al., Front Microbiol 3 (2012) 180, factors influencing biogenic amine accumulation in dairy

Sweetened condensed milk is low because boiling and sugar together leave nothing alive to produce amines. Histamine in dairy is a storage measurement, not a recipe one. Milk is not a fermented food, so its histamine depends on how it was kept rather than on how it was made - and that is exactly what the study behind this level varied: STORAGE CONDITION. A dairy product's place on this axis is a question about the cold chain.

• Szczyrba A. et al., Med Og Nauk Zdr 30:2 (2024) 137-145, histamine in cow's milk by storage condition

Whey is low because it is the watery fraction left when curd is drained, and amines stay with the protein rather than the water. Histamine in dairy is a storage measurement, not a recipe one. Milk is not a fermented food, so its histamine depends on how it was kept rather than on how it was made - and that is exactly what the study behind this level varied: STORAGE CONDITION. A dairy product's place on this axis is a question about the cold chain.

• Szczyrba A. et al., Med Og Nauk Zdr 30:2 (2024) 137-145, histamine in cow's milk by storage condition

Whey protein is low because it is filtered and dried from fresh whey, with no fermentation step at all. Histamine in dairy is a storage measurement, not a recipe one. Milk is not a fermented food, so its histamine depends on how it was kept rather than on how it was made - and that is exactly what the study behind this level varied: STORAGE CONDITION. A dairy product's place on this axis is a question about the cold chain.

• Szczyrba A. et al., Med Og Nauk Zdr 30:2 (2024) 137-145, histamine in cow's milk by storage condition

Yogurt is low because yogurt cultures are chosen for acid, not for amine production, and the fermentation is measured in hours rather than months. Histamine in dairy is a storage measurement, not a recipe one. Pasteurisation, starter culture, salt, pH and ripening time decide more than the name on the label.

• Mayer H.K. et al., J Chromatogr A 1217 (2010) 3251-3257, twenty amines by UPLC in 58 retail cheeses
• Linares D.M. et al., Front Microbiol 3 (2012) 180, factors influencing biogenic amine accumulation in dairy