Meat and histamine: 27 foods rated

Beef liver is a filter organ with a heavy blood supply, and both of those make it spoil faster than muscle - the amines rise measurably within days of slaughter even under refrigeration. It is only tolerable extremely fresh or frozen straight away, and 'looks fine' is not a test that works here.

• Villanueva Valero et al., Food Sci Technol Int 11 (2005), amines during storage of vacuum-packaged kidney, liver and spleen
• Hernandez-Jover et al., J Agric Food Chem 1997

Chicken liver is smaller and softer than beef liver and spoils faster still, and spoilage is where histamine comes from, and it is usually sold in tubs of several livers pooled together - if one was handled badly, it is in with the rest. Pâté compounds the problem: it is blended, cooked and then kept open in the fridge for days.

• Villanueva Valero et al., Food Sci Technol Int 11 (2005), amines during storage of vacuum-packaged kidney, liver and spleen
• Hernandez-Jover et al., J Agric Food Chem 1997

Chorizo is cured, fermented and then stored — the three conditions that build histamine in meat. Curing time is the lever: the longer it hangs, the more histamine, and cooking will not remove it (histamine is heat-stable). High microbial counts are what a fermented sausage IS, so amines accumulate — and great fluctuations are reported within a single type of product. Suzzi also records that no specific regulation covers these compounds in sausages, where fishery products have legal ceilings. An absence of limits is not a statement that the amounts are small.

• Suzzi G et al., Int J Food Microbiol 88 (2003) 41-54, biogenic amines in dry fermented sausages

Cured sausage is fermented and then aged, and both stages produce amines. Surveys of fermented sausage find histamine and tyramine together, and the longer the drying the more of both. High microbial counts are what a fermented sausage IS, so amines accumulate — and great fluctuations are reported within a single type of product. Suzzi also records that no specific regulation covers these compounds in sausages, where fishery products have legal ceilings. An absence of limits is not a statement that the amounts are small.

• Suzzi G et al., Int J Food Microbiol 88 (2003) 41-54, biogenic amines in dry fermented sausages

Pancetta is belly cured with salt and spice, usually for weeks rather than months, and it is almost always cooked before eating - which is the practical difference from prosciutto. Cooking does not remove the amines already there, but a shorter cure means fewer of them to start with. A survey of dry fermented sausages puts the risk at negligible for a healthy person and at a 34 per cent chance of passing the safe threshold for someone taking an MAOI.

• Latorre-Moratalla et al., Food Chem Toxicol 2017
• Hernandez-Jover et al., J Agric Food Chem 1997

Prosciutto is salted and dried for twelve to thirty-six months with no starter culture and no deliberate fermentation - salt and time and nothing else. It still accumulates amines, because three years is three years, but the process is slower and cleaner than a fermented sausage's. The age on the label is the number that matters. A survey of dry fermented sausages puts the risk at negligible for a healthy person and at a 34 per cent chance of passing the safe threshold for someone taking an MAOI.

• Latorre-Moratalla et al., Food Chem Toxicol 2017
• Hernandez-Jover et al., J Agric Food Chem 1997

Salami is the cured meat that is deliberately FERMENTED, and bacteria are given weeks to work before the drying even finishes. Industrial production adds a selected starter culture; a traditional salami ferments on whatever is already in the meat and the room, which makes it the less predictable of the two. Either way it is a different process from salting alone: fermentation is what produces the amines, and a dry-cured ham is salted without it. A survey of dry fermented sausages puts the risk at negligible for a healthy person and at a 34 per cent chance of passing the safe threshold for someone taking an MAOI. High microbial counts are what a fermented sausage IS, so amines accumulate — and great fluctuations are reported within a single type of product. Suzzi also records that no specific regulation covers these compounds in sausages, where fishery products have legal ceilings. An absence of limits is not a statement that the amounts are small.

• Latorre-Moratalla et al., Food Chem Toxicol 2017
• Hernandez-Jover et al., J Agric Food Chem 1997
• Suzzi G et al., Int J Food Microbiol 2003

Bacon is cured and often smoked, so histamine builds during curing and keeps building in the pack once opened. Fresh pork does not behave like this — it is the curing and the storage, not the meat.

Mincing multiplies the surface bacteria work on, so histamine climbs far faster than in a whole cut. Buy it minced the same day and cook it the same day — a whole steak keeps much better.

Morcilla is boiled rather than fermented, and that is the whole difference from a chorizo: biogenic amines build up during fermentation and ripening, which a boiled blood sausage skips. Not none, though - blood products stay on the cautionary lists for histamine intolerance. The doses behind that come from EFSA: no adverse effect at 50 mg of histamine for a healthy person - and below detectable limits for someone with histamine intolerance - against 600 mg of tyramine without an MAOI and 6 mg with a classical one. EFSA ranks fermented categories QUALITATIVELY and says outright that the available information was insufficient for a quantitative risk assessment, so read the comparison with chorizo as an ordering and not as a rate.

• EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards, EFSA Journal 9(10):2393 (2011), risk-based control of biogenic amine formation in fermented foods

Fresh beef is low in histamine. What raises meat on this axis is time and temperature - hung, aged or vacuum-packed meat accumulates amines steadily, and dry-aged steak is a different food here from a fresh cut.

Beef tongue is muscle rather than organ, and fresh it is low - but offal of every kind accumulates amines faster than muscle during storage, which is why it is sold and cooked quickly.

Chicken heart is fresh offal, low when it is genuinely fresh - and studies of vacuum-packed offal show amines climbing through storage even under refrigeration. Buy it the day it is cooked.

Venison is low fresh, but game carries a particular risk on this axis: it is traditionally hung to tenderise, and hanging is exactly the controlled ageing that produces amines. How long it hung is the question, and no label answers it.