Other and histamine: 82 foods rated

Chocolate as a plain word covers everything from a 90 per cent bar to a coating that is mostly sugar and vegetable fat, and what matters follows the cocoa solids rather than the number on the front, which counts cocoa butter too. Where no ingredient list is available, assume the higher end - and note that the milk in a milk chocolate does not lower the liberator effect, it only dilutes the cocoa that carries it. The Swiss list rates it 2 of 3 under “cocoa, cocoa powder (chocolate, etc.)” and marks it A for other biogenic amines and L for liberators of mast cell mediators. The letters are a presumed reason, not a measurement. Chocolate is one of the nut-containing products Yilmaz analysed alongside the twelve nuts themselves: those products ran 0.09 to 8.99 micrograms of serotonin per gram, depending on which nut was in them. It is a different amine from the one this axis is named for, and it is one more reason the word covers products that are not comparable.

• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007
• Zuberbier et al., EAACI/GA2LEN urticaria guideline
• Pastore P et al., J Chromatogr A 1098 (2005) 111-115, biogenic amines in chocolate by ion chromatography
• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list (2024-08-29), for the entry, its rating and its letters
• Yilmaz C et al., Food Chem 272 (2019) 347-353, serotonin in twelve nuts, raw and roasted

Fermented tofu is cured in brine for weeks or months, and amines accumulate the whole time. It is eaten in small cubes, but the concentration is high enough that the portion does not rescue it.

Fish sauce is anchovy left in salt for a year and drained, which is the most amine-productive process in any kitchen: high-histidine fish, warm temperature, twelve months. It is measured among the highest-histamine foods there are, and there is no fresh version - the fermentation IS the product. This product has a legal histamine criterion of its own, and it is the highest and the strictest in the regulation at once: fish sauce made by fermentation is allowed up to 400 mg/kg - twice what a fresh histidine-rich fish may carry - but on a plan of ONE sample with NO tolerance, where fresh fish are judged on nine with two allowed in the margin. The fermentation is expected to produce the amine; what is not allowed is any sample above the line.

• Comas-Baste et al., Biomolecules 2020
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Commission Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005, Annex I, Chapter 1, criteria 1.26, 1.27 and 1.27a — the histamine sampling plans for fishery products

Ketchup concentrates tomato and then adds vinegar, and the vinegar is a second source of histamine rather than a preservative that helps: it is itself a double ferment. The bottle then lives in a fridge door for months, which is the third factor.

• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007
• Comas-Baste et al., Biomolecules 2020

Miso is soy fermented with koji for anywhere between three months and three years, and the colour tells you which: white miso is the young one, red miso the long-fermented. That is a real lever - shiro miso and hatcho miso are not the same food for histamine, and the paler pot is the shorter ferment.

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

Natto is among the highest-amine foods in the surveys - the bacterial fermentation that gives it its texture is exactly the process that produces histamine and tyramine. There is no mild version.

Tempeh is fermented for only 24 to 48 hours - far shorter than miso or soy sauce - by a mould that is grown deliberately and then stopped by cooking. Short and controlled is the best case for a ferment on this axis, and it is why tempeh is often better tolerated than its category suggests. Over-ripe tempeh, going grey and ammoniacal, is not.

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

Tomato powder is dehydrated tomato and therefore the most concentrated tomato format there is - a teaspoon carries the histamine of several fresh tomatoes. It is used in soup mixes, crisp seasonings and instant sauces, where nobody thinks of it as tomato at all.

• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007
• Comas-Baste et al., Biomolecules 2020

Tomato sauce is tomato reduced for an hour and then kept - and both halves matter: the reduction concentrates the histamine that was there, and a jar or a pan kept in the fridge for days keeps building. A sauce made and eaten the same evening is a different food from the half-jar at the back of the shelf.

• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007
• Comas-Baste et al., Biomolecules 2020

Beef stock splits in two, and the split matters more than the simmering time. A concentrated meat extract - the cube, the paste, the jar - is what the elimination lists actually name: the water is gone and what the meat carried stays behind, many times concentrated. A brown stock made at home from roasted bones over six to twelve hours produces no amines of its own at that temperature; the hours extract and the reduction concentrates, so the state of the meat going in is what governs the result.

• Comas-Baste et al., Biomolecules 2020
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Gardner et al., J Clin Psychiatry 1996, for what the MAOI diet does and does not restrict

A stock cube is broth with the water removed, and it adds two things a homemade broth does not: yeast extract and glutamates, both of which carry histamine in their own right. It is also shelf-stable for years, which means everything in it was concentrated and then left.

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

A chicken broth simmered for two hours from a fresh carcass and one simmered all day and kept for a week are two different foods, but not for the reason usually given: the simmering PRODUCES no amines. At 95 degrees the bacteria that make them are long dead. What the hours do is extract what the bird already carried and then concentrate it as the liquid reduces, so the freshness of the carcass decides the outcome, and the week in the fridge afterwards decides the rest. Made fresh and eaten the same day, this is one of the gentler foods on the axis.

• Comas-Baste et al., Biomolecules 2020
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Gardner et al., J Clin Psychiatry 1996, for the meat-extract entry on the MAOI lists

Cocoa mass is on this axis as a liberator rather than as a source: the elimination protocols name cocoa among the foods that prompt a release, and the bean holds little histamine of its own. It is the whole ground bean, so a bar carries as much of the reason as it carries cocoa — which is what the percentage on the wrapper counts.

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

Cocoa nibs are crushed roasted beans with nothing removed and nothing added - the rawest form on the histamine list, and the one eaten by the handful as a snack rather than by the square. The portion is the difference between nibs and a bar, and it is not in the nibs' favour.

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

Cocoa is on this axis for two reasons, and it is worth separating them because only one has a mechanism. It is listed as a liberator in the elimination protocols - a classification from those lists rather than a demonstrated effect - and it carries other biogenic amines of its own, tyramine and phenylethylamine, which COMPETE with histamine for the same enzyme. Competing for DAO is not inhibiting it, and claims that cocoa blocks the enzyme are not established. Cocoa powder is the most concentrated form of the bean short of the mass: the fat is pressed out, so everything else concentrates per gram.

• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007
• Comas-Baste et al., Biomolecules 10:1181 (2020)
• Gardner et al., J Clin Psychiatry 1996, for the phenylethylamine attribution

Dairy-free chocolate is a histamine question because of the cocoa, and removing the milk does nothing about that - it usually raises the cocoa percentage instead, because something has to replace the milk solids. A vegan bar is often darker than the milk chocolate it replaces, and darker is higher here.

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

Dark chocolate is on this axis for two reasons worth separating. It is classified as a liberator by the elimination protocols - a classification, not a demonstrated effect - and it carries its own biogenic amines, which compete with histamine for DAO rather than blocking it. Which amines is worth stating precisely: the chromatography cited here looked for five and found dopamine, HISTAMINE and serotonin in the real samples — tyramine and phenylethylamine were looked for and not found. Both follow the cocoa, so the percentage on the front is the best guide available: not a proportion, though, because that figure counts cocoa butter, which carries neither. The better the bar reads, the higher it sits - the opposite of how most food advice runs. The Swiss list rates it 2 of 3 under “cocoa, cocoa powder (chocolate, etc.)” and marks it A for other biogenic amines and L for liberators of mast cell mediators. The letters are a presumed reason, not a measurement.

• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007
• Zuberbier et al., EAACI/GA2LEN urticaria guideline
• Pastore P et al., J Chromatogr A 1098 (2005) 111-115, biogenic amines in chocolate by ion chromatography
• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list (2024-08-29), for the entry, its rating and its letters

A whole egg is a white and a yolk, and both are on this axis: the WHITE is the classic liberator of the elimination protocols, the yolk sits lower. What follows from it is practical: a dish built on whites - meringue, mousse, an egg-white omelette - carries more of the reason than a whole egg does, and a yolk-only sauce carries less.

• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007
• SIGHI food-compatibility list
• Ramos B et al., Food Chem 2009, yolk biogenic amines during storage

Egg white is a textbook histamine liberator: it holds none itself but prompts your mast cells to release theirs. Raw or lightly cooked (mousses, mayonnaise, meringue) is the form that triggers; cooked through, most people do fine. The Swiss list rates it 1 of 3 under “egg white” and marks it L, its letter for liberators of mast cell mediators. The letters are a presumed reason, not a measurement.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list (2024-08-29), for the entry, its rating and its letters

Hummus is blended chickpea kept open in the fridge, and unlike pesto it has no salt, acid or oil layer to slow anything down - it is a moist, low-acid paste, which is the condition the bacteria that make histamine prefer. Shop-bought tubs carry preservatives for exactly this reason; a homemade one does not, and lasts days rather than weeks.

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

Oyster sauce is not fermented oyster, and it is fermentation that makes histamine: it is oyster extract cooked down with sugar, salt and usually caramel colour, and most brands contain very little oyster. That is why it sits below fish sauce despite the similar shelf position - the process is reduction rather than fermentation.

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

Peanut butter is peanuts ground and then kept open in a cupboard for weeks, which is the part that matters here - grinding exposes all the oil to air at once. A jar that has separated and smells sharp is a jar whose oil has oxidised, and that is the same process that raises the amines.

• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Maintz & Novak, Am J Clin Nutr 2007

Pesto is not fermented, but it is blended - which exposes everything at once to air - and then kept open in the fridge. It also stacks aged cheese, pine nuts and garlic, three histamine entries of their own. The date you opened the jar matters more than the date on the lid.

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

Sourdough is a live lactic fermentation, and lactic bacteria produce biogenic amines including histamine. Long-fermented breads are commonly flagged in histamine-intolerance guidance, and the longer the rise, the higher the amine load.

Soy sauce is brewed for months with mould, yeast and lactic bacteria in turn, and each of those stages breaks protein down further - which is exactly what produces amines. It is used by the spoonful, which is the only thing keeping it where it is rather than higher. There is no low-histamine soy sauce. Gardner's narrowed MAOI diet names it, and names it as a category — "soy sauce and soy bean condiments" — which covers miso, tamari and the rest of the shelf rather than one bottle.

• Comas-Baste et al., Biomolecules 2020
• McCabe-Sellers et al., J Food Compos Anal 2006
• Gardner D.M. et al., J Clin Psychiatry 57 (1996) 99-104, the review that narrowed the MAOI diet

Tamari is fermented soy, so it carries the amines of a long brew - but it is poured in teaspoons rather than served, which is what puts it a step below the solid ferments.

Almond butter is ground seed or nut with no fermentation step, so it starts low. The risk is rancidity rather than bacteria: an opened jar left warm goes off through oxidation, and that is a different spoilage from the one that makes histamine.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Almond cream is ground seed or nut with no fermentation step, so it starts low. The risk is rancidity rather than bacteria: an opened jar left warm goes off through oxidation, and that is a different spoilage from the one that makes histamine.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Almond yogurt is cultured, so it has a clock the way dairy yogurt does - but the culture is short, chosen for acidity rather than for the long ripening that builds amines. What raises it is age in the fridge after opening, not the recipe.

Beef gelatin is low rather than none by convention, matching pork gelatin: it is a processed animal protein, and no amine load has been measured for it.

Breadcrumbs are low because they are dried bread, and drying stops the yeast. Baking and drying are the two processes that end the amine question rather than starting it - heat kills the bacteria and dryness stops the rest. A sourdough proved for two days is the counter-example.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Cashew cheese is blended nuts with a culture, and the culture is the variable: a quick-set version is low, an aged one builds histamine like the dairy cheese it imitates. The name covers both.

Chocolate chips contain little histamine, and they are on elimination lists for the other reason: cocoa is a classic liberator, prompting release of the body's own stores. What a chip is made of is the brand's decision, not the word's: chips come in milk, semi-sweet and dark, so the cocoa percentage on the packet says how much cocoa you are eating - the shape says nothing. The Swiss list rates it 2 of 3 under “cocoa, cocoa powder (chocolate, etc.)” and marks it A for other biogenic amines and L for liberators of mast cell mediators. The letters are a presumed reason, not a measurement.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list (2024-08-29), for the entry, its rating and its letters

Coconut sits low in histamine rather than at nothing, and its butter is the flesh with nothing removed, so it inherits that. A jar is also a jar: opened, warm and used over weeks, which is the condition every food on this axis dislikes. Keep it cold once open.

• Ahmed M et al., J Food Compos Anal 2024, essential and non-essential metals in coconut milk
• Flyvholm M-A et al., Z Lebensm Unters Forsch 179 (1984)

Coconut yogurt is cultured, so it has a clock the way dairy yogurt does - but the culture is short, chosen for acidity rather than for the long ripening that builds amines. What raises it is age in the fridge after opening, not the recipe.

Croissant is low because it is a short-risen dough, baked before anything accumulates. Baking and drying are the two processes that end the amine question rather than starting it - heat kills the bacteria and dryness stops the rest. A sourdough proved for two days is the counter-example.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Egg yolk is raw protein, and raw protein is where amines form given time and warmth. A fresh egg is low; measurements of stored shell eggs show yolk amines climbing week by week. The shell date is the number that matters.

French fries are low because they are potato and oil, neither of which ferments. Baking and drying are the two processes that end the amine question rather than starting it - heat kills the bacteria and dryness stops the rest. A sourdough proved for two days is the counter-example.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Gluten-free bread is low because it is usually chemically raised or quickly proved, without a long ferment. Baking and drying are the two processes that end the amine question rather than starting it - heat kills the bacteria and dryness stops the rest. A sourdough proved for two days is the counter-example.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Granola is low because it is oats and nuts baked dry, with no wet stage for bacteria. Baking and drying are the two processes that end the amine question rather than starting it - heat kills the bacteria and dryness stops the rest. A sourdough proved for two days is the counter-example.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Hazelnut spread is ground seed or nut with no fermentation step, so it starts low. The risk is rancidity rather than bacteria: an opened jar left warm goes off through oxidation, and that is a different spoilage from the one this axis measures. Pastore looked for dopamine, serotonin, tyramine, histamine and 2-phenylethylamine in chocolate. It is a method paper: it reports what was detected and how repeatably, and publishes no concentration for any chocolate.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters
• Pastore P et al., J Chromatogr A 1098 (2005) 111-115, biogenic amines in chocolate by ion chromatography

Milk chocolate contains little histamine, and is on elimination lists for the other reason: cocoa is a classic liberator, prompting release of the body's own stores. Milk and sugar dilute the cocoa, which is why this sits below dark chocolate. The Swiss list rates it 2 of 3 under “cocoa, cocoa powder (chocolate, etc.)” and marks it A for other biogenic amines and L for liberators of mast cell mediators. The letters are a presumed reason, not a measurement. Pastore looked for dopamine, serotonin, tyramine, histamine and 2-phenylethylamine in chocolate. It is a method paper: it reports what was detected and how repeatably, and publishes no concentration for any chocolate.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list (2024-08-29), for the entry, its rating and its letters
• Pastore P et al., J Chromatogr A 1098 (2005) 111-115, biogenic amines in chocolate by ion chromatography

Plant-based cream cheese is usually coconut oil and starch with flavouring, not a fermented product at all - which is why it sits far below the aged dairy cheese it is named after. For histamine the imitation is safer than the original, and that is worth knowing.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Pork gelatin is collagen boiled down and purified - the process strips out free amino acids along with everything else, so there is nothing left for the bacteria that make histamine to work on. It is one of the few animal proteins that is genuinely inert here.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Potato flakes are low because they are cooked then dried, which leaves nothing alive. Baking and drying are the two processes that end the amine question rather than starting it - heat kills the bacteria and dryness stops the rest. A sourdough proved for two days is the counter-example.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Sorbet is fruit and sugar frozen, and freezing suspends everything - the bacteria that make histamine do not work at that temperature. What matters is the fruit it was made from and how long it sat before freezing.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Soy cream is unfermented soy drink thickened with oil - no culture, no clock. It is the soy product at the opposite end of the histamine range from natto and fermented tofu.

Soy yogurt is cultured, so it has a clock the way dairy yogurt does - but the culture is short, chosen for acidity rather than for the long ripening that builds amines. What raises it is age in the fridge after opening, not the recipe.

Spirulina is a dried cyanobacterium, harvested as a protein-rich biomass — the three things an amine needs are protein, bacteria and time, and the first two are the product itself. No assay of biogenic amines in spirulina is published; what can be said comes from what it is made of — protein, bacteria and time.

Tahini is ground seed or nut with no fermentation step, so it starts low. The risk is rancidity rather than bacteria: an opened jar left warm goes off through oxidation, and that is a different spoilage from the one that makes histamine.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Tofu is pressed, unfermented soy - the curd is set with a mineral salt and eaten fresh. Fermented tofu is another food entirely and sits at the top of the histamine range; the two share a name and nothing else here.

Tomato concentrate is tomato with most of the water boiled off, so whatever histamine the fruit carried is concentrated with it — and the tube then stays open in a fridge door for weeks, which is the part that keeps building.

Vegan cheese is usually coconut oil and starch with flavouring, not a fermented product at all - which is why it sits far below the aged dairy cheese it is named after. For histamine the imitation is safer than the original, and that is worth knowing.

• SIGHI — Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance, food-compatibility list, for the entry, its rating and its letters

Vegetable broth is usually built on yeast extract, and yeast products have carried histamine and tyramine since the first surveys of them. The vegetables contribute nothing; the flavour base does. Blackwell measured yeast products, not this additive.

• Blackwell B. et al., Journal of Food Science 34 (1969) 47-51, amines in yeast products