Is butter high in histamine?
Butter is likely low in histamine: it was not measured, but it is churned from fresh cream without fermenting or ripening, and milk had no detectable histamine in lab tests. Cultured butter is a small step up.
- Histamine
- Not measured
- Other amines
- Not measured
- Liberator
- Not on the lists we use
- DAO blocker
- No evidence
What each source says
| Source | Verdict | What it says, in our words |
|---|---|---|
| Lab measurements of milk, Spain 1 | Measured | Butter was not measured. Five milks had no detectable histamine or other biogenic amines. |
| 10 published low-histamine diets 1 | Butter is not on the review's chart of excluded foods; milk is excluded by 1 of 10. | |
| SIGHI food list 2 | See source | See SIGHI's own list for its rating. |
How freshness and processing change it
Butter was not measured, so we cannot say whether old butter has more histamine. Butter that tastes rancid has changed in its fat, which is a different process from bacteria breaking down protein into histamine. Keep it cold and covered; butter freezes well if you use it slowly.
Not measured; churned from fresh cream, not fermented. (estimate)
Not measured; the cream is soured with lactic acid bacteria before churning. (estimate)
Why we rate butter 0
Butter was not measured in any of the studies we use, so this rating is an estimate from how butter is made. Most butter is churned from fresh cream: the fat clumps together, the buttermilk is drained off, and what is left is mostly fat with some water and a little milk protein. Nothing in that process ferments or ripens it, and those are the steps that put histamine into dairy foods.
The measured dairy foods support that reading. In a University of Barcelona survey of foods sold in Spain, five milks had no detectable histamine and none of the five other amines tested. Twenty unripened cheeses had none either, while ripened cheeses averaged 18.05 mg/kg when made from pasteurised milk and 59.37 mg/kg when made from raw milk. The team's reviews explain that histamine in food is made by bacteria from histidine, an amino acid in protein, and that the foods likely to be high are fermented or spoiled ones. Butter is low in protein and is not fermented.
Cultured butter is the exception worth knowing. For butter sold as cultured or European-style, the cream is soured with lactic acid bacteria before churning. That is a short fermentation, and it was not measured either. We rate cultured butter one step higher, 1, as an estimate, because it has been fermented. We do not expect much: plain yogurt, which is fermented with lactic acid bacteria, had no histamine in five samples.
The published diets do not single butter out. It is not on the chart of foods excluded by the ten low-histamine diets in the team's 2021 review, and only one of the ten excludes milk. Ghee, which is butter with the water and milk solids cooked off, has its own page.
We rate butter 0, "low". If butter seems to cause symptoms, note it in a food diary and raise it with your doctor or dietitian; milk allergy is a separate condition that this rating does not cover.
Questions about butter and histamine
Is butter low histamine?
Butter was not measured, but it is made from fresh cream without fermenting or ripening, and milk had no detectable histamine in lab tests, so we rate it 0 as an estimate.
Is cultured butter higher in histamine than regular butter?
Possibly a little. The cream is soured with lactic acid bacteria before churning, so we rate cultured butter 1 as an estimate. Neither kind was measured.
Evidence behind this page
- Five milks sold in Spain had no detectable histamine, putrescine, cadaverine, tyramine, spermidine or spermine. 1
- Histamine in food is formed mainly by bacteria acting on the amino acid histidine; fermented and spoiled foods are the ones likely to be high. 31
- Twenty unripened cheeses had no detectable histamine, while ripened cheeses averaged 18.05 mg/kg (pasteurised milk) and 59.37 mg/kg (raw milk). 3
- Five plain yogurts, fermented with lactic acid bacteria, had no detectable histamine. 1
- Butter is not on the 2021 review's chart of foods excluded by ten low-histamine diets; one of the ten excludes milk. 1
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 (Sánchez-Pérez S et al. 2021)
- Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance (SIGHI). Food compatibility list for histamine intolerance. histaminintoleranz.ch (accessed November 2026), 2026. Link (Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance (SIGHI) 2026)
- 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 (Comas-Basté O et al. 2020)