Is carrot high in histamine?
Carrot is low in histamine: none was found in 13 carrots tested in Spain, and putrescine was low, averaging 2.27 mg/kg. No study we use has found histamine in carrot.
- Histamine
- Not detected
- Other amines
- Low
- 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, Spain 1 | Measured | No detectable histamine in 13 carrots; putrescine averaged 2.27 mg/kg. |
| Other studies in the 2018 review 1 | None reported histamine in carrot; average putrescine ranged from 0.7 to 14.8 mg/kg. | |
| 10 published low-histamine diets 2 | Carrot is not on the review's chart of foods the diets exclude. | |
| SIGHI food list 3 | See source | See SIGHI's own list for its rating. |
Measured histamine
| Food tested | Samples | Histamine | Other amines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carrots sold in Spain 1 (Table 1) | 13 | not detected | putrescine mean 2.27 mg/kg (0.35–8.92); tyramine and cadaverine not detected |
mg/kg = milligrams of histamine per kilogram of food. "Not detected" means below the laboratory's detection limit.
How freshness and processing change it
The carrots measured were raw and shop-bought. Carrots were not tested after long storage, and carrot juice, pickled carrots and fermented carrots were not measured, so those forms are not rated here.
No histamine in 13 raw carrots; histamine is not formed by cooking. (measured)
Why we rate carrot 0
Carrot is one of the vegetables the measurements agree on most. A University of Barcelona team tested thirteen carrots sold in Spain and found no histamine, no tyramine and no cadaverine. Putrescine, the amine found in almost every vegetable, averaged 2.27 mg/kg and ranged from 0.35 to 8.92 mg/kg.
The team's 2018 review also gathered carrot results from other laboratories, nine sets in all. None of them reported histamine in carrot. Most measured only putrescine, with averages from 0.7 to 14.8 mg/kg depending on the study. Two of those averages were above 10 mg/kg, the level at which our scale would move a food up one step, but most were far lower, and the review notes that putrescine varies a lot between samples of the same vegetable and that low levels in plants may be natural rather than a sign of spoilage. We rate from the largest, most complete measurement, which is the Spanish one.
Carrot does not appear among the foods charted as excluded by the ten published low-histamine diets in the team's 2021 review. That chart covers only some foods, so we do not claim that all ten diets allow carrot; we found no diet in our sources that excludes it.
That makes carrot one of the dependable vegetables for low-histamine cooking. It works in soups, stews and sauces in place of tomato, which is rated higher, and raw in salads. Potato and courgette (zucchini), both of which also had no detectable histamine, are the other staples in the same group.
We rate carrot 0, "low". The rating covers fresh carrots, raw or cooked. Carrot juice, pickled carrots and fermented carrots were not measured, and fermented vegetables can be high, as our sauerkraut page shows.
Questions about carrot and histamine
Are cooked carrots higher in histamine than raw?
No. Cooking does not create histamine, and raw carrots had none to start with. Leftover carrot dishes kept for days were not measured.
Is carrot juice low in histamine?
Carrot juice was not measured in the studies we use. Juices of other produce sometimes had traces of histamine that the fresh fruit did not, which one study linked to hygiene during processing or storage.
Evidence behind this page
- Thirteen carrots sold in Spain had no detectable histamine, tyramine or cadaverine; putrescine averaged 2.27 mg/kg (0.35–8.92). 1
- Other studies collected in the same review reported no histamine in carrot and average putrescine from 0.7 to 14.8 mg/kg. 1
- Carrot does not appear among the foods charted as excluded by ten published low-histamine diets. 2
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 (Sánchez-Pérez S et al. 2018)
- 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)