Low-histamine meat and poultry
| Food | Rating | Category | Published diets excluding it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beef | Meat and poultry | 3 of 10 | |
| Chicken | Meat and poultry | 3 of 10 | |
| Ground beef | Meat and poultry | 3 of 10 | |
| Lamb | Meat and poultry | 3 of 10 | |
| Pork | Meat and poultry | 3 of 10 | |
| Turkey | Meat and poultry | 3 of 10 | |
| Ham | Meat and poultry | 2 of 10 | |
| Bacon · disputed | Meat and poultry | 2 of 10 | |
| Bone broth | Meat and poultry | — | |
| Salami | Meat and poultry | 10 of 10 |
Meat is low in histamine when it is fresh and high when it has been fermented, and almost everything in between depends on time. In a Spanish survey of meat products, 199 samples of fresh meat had no detectable histamine at all. Cured meat averaged 4.89 mg/kg across 23 samples, with one at 150 mg/kg. Dry-fermented sausages such as salami, chorizo and pepperoni averaged 21.57 mg/kg across 424 samples, and 5% were above 129.95 mg/kg.
The published low-histamine diets follow the same order. All ten diets in a 2021 review exclude dry-fermented sausages, while only two exclude cured meat and three exclude fresh meat. The review notes that fresh, cooked and cured meat are not expected to contain histamine as long as freshness and hygiene are guaranteed, and that this is exactly where the risk lies for people who are sensitive.
Fermented sausages are high for a different reason from spoiled food. They are made with lactic acid bacteria, and some of those bacteria turn histidine into histamine and tyrosine into tyramine as part of normal production. Levels vary widely, even between samples from the same production batch, so one good experience does not make a brand safe.
For fresh meat and poultry, the questions that matter are about storage. Leftovers, ready-cooked rotisserie chicken, canned meat and sliced deli meat were not measured in the studies we use, but each has spent time in which bacteria can act, and histamine survives reheating. Our meat pages rate fresh meat by its measurements and rate each stored or processed form separately as an estimate, so the page always shows the version you are about to eat.
Sources
- 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
- 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