Low-histamine grains
Grains are the most consistently low food group in the studies we use. A 2020 review from a University of Barcelona team pooled 28 cereal samples and found an average of 0.12 mg/kg of histamine, with a highest single sample of 0.89 mg/kg. That is far below the 2.51 mg/kg average for tomato, which nine of ten published diets exclude.
The same team's 2018 review gives figures for individual grains bought in Spain. Rice, oats, barley, white bread, wholemeal bread and wheat pasta all had no detectable histamine, tyramine or cadaverine. Putrescine was the only amine found, averaging no more than 2.4 mg/kg in any of them, and the review explains that putrescine in cereals has a physiological origin: it comes from the plant itself, not from spoilage. The one standout was wheat germ, at 31.64 mg/kg of putrescine, which the authors link to its fast-dividing cells. No grain had histamine.
The caveat is the number of samples. Several grains in the 2018 tables were tested only twice, so each page here also shows the pooled cereal figure and says how many samples sit behind each number. Cooked grains kept as leftovers, sourdough and other fermented breads were not measured and are not rated by these figures.
The published diets mostly agree. Cereals do not appear among the foods charted as excluded in the 2021 review of ten low-histamine diets, and a 2024 clinical review gives bread and rice as examples of foods low in histamine. Coeliac disease and gluten sensitivity are separate conditions, and these ratings say nothing about gluten.
Quinoa, buckwheat, millet and polenta were not in these surveys, so their pages are rated from how they are made and stored, and say so. Each grain page lists the measurements, the sources and the forms that were not tested.
Sources
- Sánchez-Pérez S, Comas-Basté O, Rabell-González J, Veciana-Nogués MT, Latorre-Moratalla ML, Vidal-Carou MC. Biogenic Amines in Plant-Origin Foods: Are They Frequently Underestimated in Low-Histamine Diets? Foods 7(12):205, 2018. doi:10.3390/foods7120205
- Comas-Basté O, Sánchez-Pérez S, Veciana-Nogués MT, Latorre-Moratalla M, Vidal-Carou MDC. Histamine Intolerance: The Current State of the Art. Biomolecules 10(8):1181, 2020. doi:10.3390/biom10081181
- Sánchez-Pérez S, Comas-Basté O, Veciana-Nogués MT, Latorre-Moratalla ML, Vidal-Carou MC. Low-Histamine Diets: Is the Exclusion of Foods Justified by Their Histamine Content? Nutrients 13(5):1395, 2021. doi:10.3390/nu13051395
- Jochum C. Histamine Intolerance: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Beyond. Nutrients 16(8):1219, 2024. doi:10.3390/nu16081219