Food list for histamine intolerance
Letzte Aktualisierung am 24. August 2026 von Dr. Michael Zechmann-Khreis
Histamine Intolerance: What Can I Eat?
When it comes to histamine intolerance, there is no fixed list of foods that applies equally to everyone. Key factors include the histamine content, other biogenic amines, the amount consumed, as well as the freshness, storage, ripening, and processing of a food. That makes the whole thing very individual. However, it is still possible to classify foods.
The following list of histamine-containing foods therefore provides practical guidance. It distinguishes between foods that are often well-suited, should be tested on an individual basis, or are generally unsuitable.
| Lebensmittel | Einordnung | Kurzbegründung |
|---|---|---|
| Frischkäse | Gut geeignet | Frischkäse und wenig gereifte Käse enthalten meist weniger biogene Amine |
| Mozzarella | Gut geeignet | Wenig gereifter Käse; meist besser verträglich |
| Ricotta | Gut geeignet | Frischer, wenig gereifter Käse |
| Mascarpone | Gut geeignet | Frisches Milchprodukt ohne längere Reifung |
| Pasteurisierte Milch | Gut geeignet | Enthält üblicherweise nur geringe Histaminmengen |
| Frisches Fleisch | Gut geeignet | Bei durchgehender Kühlung und frischem Verzehr meist histaminarm |
| Schweinefleisch | Individuell testen | Einige Betroffene berichten über eine schlechtere Verträglichkeit |
| Sehr frischer weißer Fisch | Gut geeignet | Frische und Kühlkette sind entscheidend; Histamin kann bei Lagerung rasch ansteigen |
| Thunfisch | Eher ungünstig | Histaminbildung kann insbesondere bei Lagerung und Verarbeitung relevant sein |
| Reis | Gut geeignet | Üblicherweise histaminarm |
| Hafer | Gut geeignet | Üblicherweise histaminarm |
| Hirse | Gut geeignet | Üblicherweise histaminarm |
| Quinoa | Gut geeignet | Üblicherweise histaminarm |
| Amaranth | Gut geeignet | Üblicherweise histaminarm |
| Kartoffeln | Gut geeignet | Üblicherweise histaminarm |
| Karotten / Möhren | Gut geeignet | Üblicherweise histaminarm |
| Brokkoli | Gut geeignet | Üblicherweise histaminarm |
| Zucchini | Gut geeignet | Üblicherweise histaminarm |
| Gurke | Gut geeignet | Üblicherweise histaminarm |
| Kürbis | Gut geeignet | Üblicherweise histaminarm |
| Blattsalat | Gut geeignet | Frisch meist gut verträglich |
| Äpfel | Gut geeignet | In der bestehenden Verträglichkeitsliste meist gut verträglich eingeordnet |
| Heidelbeeren | Gut geeignet | In der bestehenden Verträglichkeitsliste meist gut verträglich eingeordnet |
| Mango | Gut geeignet | In der bestehenden Verträglichkeitsliste meist gut verträglich eingeordnet |
| Aprikosen | Gut geeignet | In der bestehenden Verträglichkeitsliste meist gut verträglich eingeordnet |
| Eier | Gut geeignet | Gekocht meist gut verträglich; rohes Eiweiß kann individuell schlechter vertragen werden |
| Kräutertee | Gut geeignet | In der bestehenden Verträglichkeitsliste meist gut verträglich eingeordnet |
| Bohnen und Hülsenfrüchte | Individuell testen | Verträglichkeit ist unterschiedlich; einzelne Hülsenfrüchte können problematisch sein |
| Grüne Bohnen | Individuell testen | Gedämpft werden sie von manchen Betroffenen besser vertragen |
| Nüsse | Individuell testen | Individuelle Verträglichkeit kann deutlich variieren |
| Weizenprodukte | Individuell testen | Beschwerden werden berichtet, die Ursache muss nicht Histamin sein |
| Schokolade und Kakao | Individuell testen | Größere Mengen werden häufiger als problematisch beschrieben |
| Bananen | Individuell testen | Können relevante Mengen anderer biogener Amine enthalten; die individuelle Verträglichkeit ist unterschiedlich. |
| Orangen und Zitrusfrüchte | Individuell testen | Können relevante Mengen anderer biogener Amine wie Putrescin enthalten; die individuelle Verträglichkeit ist unterschiedlich. |
| Erdbeeren | Individuell testen | Die Frische ist entscheidend: Sehr frische Erdbeeren sind meist besser verträglich; bei längerer Lagerung können biogene Amine und andere Abbauprodukte zunehmen. |
| Tomaten | Individuell testen | Können Histamin und andere biogene Amine enthalten; die Gehalte schwanken je nach Sorte, Reife und Lagerung. |
| Gereifter Hartkäse | Eher ungünstig | Bei längerer Reifung können hohe Mengen biogener Amine entstehen |
| Salami | Eher ungünstig | Gereiftes und verarbeitetes Fleisch kann relevante Mengen biogener Amine enthalten |
| Rohschinken | Eher ungünstig | Reifung und Lagerung begünstigen die Bildung biogener Amine |
| Geräuchertes Fleisch | Eher ungünstig | Verarbeitung und Lagerung können die Belastung mit biogenen Aminen erhöhen |
| Fischkonserven | Eher ungünstig | Fisch ist besonders empfindlich gegenüber Histaminbildung bei Lagerung und Verarbeitung |
| Sojasauce | Eher ungünstig | Fermentiertes Produkt; kann relevante Mengen biogener Amine enthalten |
| Fermentierte Sojaprodukte | Eher ungünstig | Fermentation kann zur Bildung biogener Amine führen |
| Sauerkraut | Eher ungünstig | Fermentation kann zur Bildung von Histamin und anderen biogenen Aminen führen |
| Fermentierte Lebensmittel | Eher ungünstig | Je nach Produkt und Herstellungsprozess können relevante Mengen biogener Amine entstehen |
| Balsamico | Eher ungünstig | Fermentiertes bzw. gereiftes Produkt |
| Rotweinessig | Eher ungünstig | Fermentation und Ausgangsprodukt können die Verträglichkeit beeinflussen |
| Weißweinessig | Eher ungünstig | Fermentation und Ausgangsprodukt können die Verträglichkeit beeinflussen |
| Alkoholische Getränke | Eher ungünstig | Fermentierte Getränke werden häufig schlechter vertragen |
| Rotwein | Eher ungünstig | Enthält je nach Herstellung Histamin und andere biogene Amine |
| Fertiggerichte | Individuell testen | Nicht grundsätzlich histaminreich; die Verträglichkeit hängt von Zutaten, Verarbeitung, Frische und Lagerung ab. |
Important: This table is not a list of prohibited foods. Individual tolerance can vary significantly. In addition, especially with fresh and microbiologically perishable foods, the histamine content can change depending on storage and processing.
Are you looking for a specific food item?
With the app Ask Ingrid , you can look up individual foods as well as packaged products. In addition, the community ratings show you how other people with similar conditions tolerate a particular food or product.
The app can be used for free with a limited number of searches per day. If you want to look things up more often, you can sign up for a subscription; the annual subscription includes seven free trial days.
Why Histamine Lists Can Only Serve as a Guide
With lactose, it is possible to specify relatively precisely how much lactose a particular food contains. With histamine, this is much more difficult. The histamine content of a food can vary greatly even within the same product group.
Key factors include the raw material, microorganisms, temperature, storage duration, processing, and aging. For this reason, a cheese of the same variety, for example, can contain very different amounts of histamine and other biogenic amines depending on how it is produced and its degree of ripeness.
A list of exact figures, such as “Food X always contains 20 mg of histamine per kilogram,” therefore often conveys a level of precision that does not exist in reality. It makes more sense to categorize foods based on typical risk factors and individual tolerance.
Histamine is not the same as “biogenic amines”
Histamine is a biogenic amine. In addition, there are other biogenic amines, such as tyramine, putrescine, and cadaverine. Therefore, when assessing the tolerability of a food for people with histamine intolerance, we consider not only its histamine content but also other relevant biogenic amines.
In fact, other biogenic amines may play a role in practical tolerability. Putrescine, in particular, is discussed as a possible contributing factor because various biogenic amines are sometimes metabolized via the same pathways. However, the actual clinical significance of this competition has not yet been conclusively determined.
That is one of the reasons why two foods with similarly low histamine levels may still be tolerated differently by individual people affected by histamine intolerance.
How is histamine formed in food?
Histamine can form when microorganisms convert the amino acid histidine into histamine using the enzyme histidine decarboxylase. For this reason, foods that are high in protein and also provide conditions in which such microorganisms can grow or are active during fermentation are of particular concern. These are primarily animal proteins.
This also explains why aging, fermentation, and storage play such an important role. Aged cheese, fermented meat products, certain fish products, canned fish, soy sauce, and fermented vegetables may contain significant amounts of histamine or other biogenic amines.
However, this does not mean that every fermented food automatically contains a certain amount of histamine. Microorganisms, production methods, raw materials, temperature, and storage conditions significantly influence the resulting levels.
Freshness and storage are especially important
For some foods, it is not the type of food that matters most, but rather its condition. The classic example is fish.
- Certain species of fish naturally contain high levels of histidine. If the fish is not adequately chilled after being caught, microorganisms can produce histamine from it. That is why maintaining a consistent cold chain is particularly important for fish.
- Fish that is fresh or frozen immediately after being caught may therefore have a completely different histamine level than the same fish after improper storage.
The same generally applies to other highly perishable, protein-rich foods: the longer and under more unfavorable conditions they are stored, the greater the likelihood of microbial production of biogenic amines.
Does heating help reduce histamine?
Only to a limited extent. Histamine-producing microorganisms can be killed by heating them sufficiently. However, histamine that has already been formed is relatively heat-stable. Cooking, frying, or baking a food that is already high in histamine does not reliably make it low in histamine.
Even freezing does not remove histamine that is already present. However, it can largely stop the growth of microorganisms and thus prevent further histamine production. For people who are sensitive to histamine, it may therefore be a good idea to quickly cool freshly prepared foods that will not be eaten right away and, if necessary, freeze them.
Why Aged Cheese, Sausage, and Fermented Foods Are More Often Problematic
Microorganisms are desirable during fermentation and ripening: they produce flavor, alter the texture, and turn milk into cheese or meat into raw sausage. However, some microorganisms can also produce biogenic amines during this process.
Studies have repeatedly found histamine, tyramine, putrescine, and other biogenic amines, particularly in long-aged cheeses and fermented meat products. However, the concentrations vary widely.
That is why the rule of thumb—”fresh cheese is often less likely to cause a reaction than long-aged cheese”—makes more sense than trying to assign a specific histamine level to each type of cheese. Young or unripened cheeses tend to be better tolerated than long-aged varieties.
What about fruits and vegetables?
Many plant-based foods contain only small amounts of histamine. However, that does not mean that all types of fruits and vegetables are automatically equally well tolerated.
Analyses show, for example, that tomatoes, spinach, eggplant, and avocados sometimes have measurable or higher histamine levels, although there is significant variation here as well. Other plant-based foods may contain larger amounts of other biogenic amines, such as putrescine.
A blanket statement such as “Fruit is histamine-free” or “Citrus fruits are generally off-limits for people with histamine intolerance” is therefore not scientifically justified. Individual tolerance remains the decisive factor.
Histamine-releasing agents: not sufficiently supported by scientific evidence
Many histamine lists include an additional group of so-called histamine liberators. These are foods that are said to trigger the release of the body’s own histamine from mast cells.
Typically, strawberries, citrus fruits, pineapples, tomatoes, chocolate, nuts, and egg whites, among other foods, are cited as histamine-releasing foods.
To date, there is no convincing clinical evidence to support this blanket classification. There is a lack of reliable human studies showing that these foods trigger symptoms in people with histamine intolerance through a specific release of the body’s own histamine. It is believed that these foods contain other biogenic amines that accumulate to significant levels during prolonged storage. Thus, they are not histamine-releasing foods; while they are low in histamine, they are rich in other biogenic amines.
Are there any foods that block DAO?
Lists of foods that are said to block DAO are also frequently circulating on the Internet. Examples include tea, cocoa, coffee, and energy drinks.
However, the scientific evidence for such a broad food category is too limited to justify blanket bans. For this reason, we do not list these foods as a confirmed group of “DAO inhibitors.”
Alcohol, however, plays a special role. Alcohol can contain histamine or other biogenic amines itself and, at the same time, affect histamine metabolism. Many people with suspected histamine intolerance therefore report having a harder time tolerating alcoholic beverages.
Yeast is not necessarily high in histamine
Yeast is also frequently banned outright in older lists of histamine-containing foods. There is no sufficient scientific basis for this. What matters far more is the finished food product and its manufacturing process. During fermentation, microorganisms can produce biogenic amines—but this does not mean that baker’s yeast or yeast as an ingredient is inherently high in histamine or incompatible with histamine intolerance.
Why Individual Tolerance Is More Important Than a List of Prohibited Substances
The scientific literature highlights a fundamental problem: To date, there is no generally accepted list of foods that can reliably distinguish between “permitted” and “prohibited” items.
This is not only due to fluctuating histamine levels. Individual sensitivity, other intestinal conditions, medications, alcohol, hormonal factors, and other influences can also play a role.
That’s why a low-histamine diet shouldn’t mean constantly cutting out more and more foods.
Better: Reduce it a little, then test it systematically
A recent allergy guideline recommends a step-by-step approach: First, the intake of foods high in histamine or biogenic amines is reduced for a limited period of time. Foods are then reintroduced in a targeted manner to determine individual tolerance.
The goal is not to follow the strictest possible diet for the rest of one’s life, but rather to eat as varied a diet as possible, with only those restrictions that are truly necessary.
Anyone who significantly restricts their diet due to suspected histamine intolerance should discuss this approach with a qualified nutritionist.
Here you’ll find information on professional nutritional counseling for food intolerances.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Histamine Food List
Which foods are low in histamine?
Many fresh, minimally processed foods typically contain low levels of histamine. These include, for example, rice, potatoes, many types of vegetables, fresh meat, and fresh dairy products. However, freshness, processing, and individual tolerance are key factors.
Which foods are often high in histamine?
Higher levels of histamine or biogenic amines are more commonly found in aged, fermented, or long-stored foods. These may include aged cheeses, fermented sausages, canned fish, certain fermented fish products, soy sauce, and other fermented foods.
Is fish allowed if you have histamine intolerance?
Fish is not inherently high in histamine. However, under certain storage conditions, some types of fish can produce very high levels of histamine. That is why freshness and a consistent cold chain are particularly important. Freezing largely prevents further microbial histamine production, but it does not remove histamine that is already present.
Is histamine destroyed by cooking?
No. Histamine is relatively heat-stable. Heating can kill microorganisms that produce histamine, but it cannot reliably remove histamine that has already formed.
Are tomatoes or strawberries histamine releasers?
The traditional classification of certain foods as histamine-releasing agents is not sufficiently supported by scientific evidence. Tomatoes, however, may contain histamine themselves; in the case of strawberries, a specific histamine-releasing effect in humans has not been conclusively demonstrated. Both foods should therefore be evaluated based on individual tolerance. Fresh foods with a short shelf life are easier to digest than products that have traveled long distances and been stored for a long time.
Do you have to stick to a strict low-histamine diet for the rest of your life?
As a general rule, a very restrictive diet should not be followed indefinitely without specific monitoring. It makes more sense to follow a time-limited phase of dietary restriction, followed by the systematic reintroduction of foods to determine individual tolerance.
Bibliography / Sources
- Reese, I., et al. (2021). Guideline on the Management of Suspected Adverse Reactions to Ingested Histamine . Allergologie Select, 5, 305–314.
- Sánchez-Pérez, S., Comas-Basté, O., Veciana-Nogués, MT, Latorre-Moratalla, ML & Vidal-Carou, MC (2021). Low-Histamine Diets: Is the Exclusion of Foods Justified by Their Histamine Content? Nutrients , 13, 1395.
- Comas-Basté, O., Sánchez-Pérez, S., Veciana-Nogués, M. T., Latorre-Moratalla, M., & Vidal-Carou, M. C. (2020). Histamine Intolerance: The Current State of the Art . Biomolecules, 10, 1181.
- Sánchez-Pérez, S., et al. (2018). Biogenic Amines in Plant-Based Foods: Are They Often Underestimated in Low-Histamine Diets? Foods, 7, 205.
- EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) (2011). Scientific Opinion on risk-based control of biogenic amine formation in fermented foods . EFSA Journal, 9, 2393.
- Durak-Dados, A., Michalski, M., & Osek, J. (2020). Histamine and Other Biogenic Amines in Food . Journal of Veterinary Research, 64, 281–288.
- Turna, N.S., Chung, R. & McIntyre, L. (2024). A review of biogenic amines in fermented foods: Occurrence and health effects . Heliyon , 10, e24501.
- Natrella, G., et al. (2024). A Comprehensive Review of Biogenic Amines in Cheese: Their Origin, Chemical Characteristics, Hazards, and Reduction Strategies . Foods, 13, 2583.
- Zechmann-Khreis, M. (2025). Understanding and Managing Histamine Intolerance. MZK Verlag.