Are chickpeas high in histamine?
Chickpeas are low in histamine: none was found in the samples tested in Spain or in other studies, and putrescine was low. Polyamines are the likely reason a few diets exclude them.
- 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 4 samples; putrescine averaged 3.63 mg/kg. |
| Review of plant foods, 2018 1 | Lists chickpeas among plant foods some diets exclude; finds no histamine and suggests polyamines may explain the exclusion. | |
| Review of low-histamine diets, 2020 2 | Fewer than 20% of the diets it compared exclude chickpeas. | |
| Clinical review, 2024 3 | Lists legumes among foods a low-histamine diet avoids, without naming chickpeas. | |
| 10 published low-histamine diets (2021 review) 4 | Chickpeas are not on the review's chart of foods the diets exclude. | |
| SIGHI food list 5 | See source | See SIGHI's own list for its rating. |
Measured histamine
| Food tested | Samples | Histamine | Other amines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chickpeas sold in Spain 1 (Table 1, row 'Chickpeas') | 4 | not detected | putrescine mean 3.63 mg/kg (0.90–6.39); tyramine and cadaverine not detected |
| Range across all studies in the 2018 review 1 (Table 4, row 'Chickpeas') | — | not detected | putrescine 1–6 mg/kg; cadaverine and tyramine up to 0.5 mg/kg; spermidine 15–85 mg/kg; spermine 4–32 mg/kg |
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 papers do not say whether the chickpeas tested were dried or cooked, and none followed them in storage. Once chickpeas are cooked, treat them like any cooked food: eat them within a day or freeze portions as soon as they have cooled, because amines form as cooked food is kept and reheating does not remove them.
No histamine in 4 samples; putrescine averaged 3.63 mg/kg. (measured)
Not measured. Heat does not remove histamine, but the chickpeas tested had none. (estimate)
Not measured. Adds tahini and garlic, which our sources did not test, and lemon, which we rate 1. (estimate)
Not measured; storage gives bacteria time to act. (estimate)
Why we rate chickpeas 0
Chickpeas give a clean result for histamine. A University of Barcelona team tested four chickpea samples sold in Spain and found no histamine, no tyramine and no cadaverine. The only amine present was putrescine, at 3.63 mg/kg on average and 6.39 mg/kg in the highest sample. That is under half the putrescine in courgette (7.94 mg/kg), which no published diet excludes. Another study in the team's 2018 review also found little: putrescine at 2 mg/kg, with tyramine and cadaverine below 0.5 mg/kg.
Four samples is a small number, so it matters that the wider data agree. Across all the studies the 2018 review collected, no histamine was reported in chickpeas, and a 2020 review from the same group found none in any of the 11 legume samples it pooled.
So why do some lists drop chickpeas? The 2018 review puts them among the plant foods that some low-histamine diets exclude and offers polyamines as a possible reason. Chickpeas carried 15–85 mg/kg of spermidine across studies, and DAO, the gut enzyme that breaks down histamine, also handles polyamines, though with lower affinity. Nobody has tested whether the spermidine in chickpeas causes symptoms, and our rating rule does not count polyamines. The lists themselves are not keen on dropping chickpeas: the 2020 review found that fewer than one diet in five does, and chickpeas have no bar on the 2021 chart of foods excluded by ten diets. A 2024 clinical review does list legumes in general among foods to avoid.
We rate chickpeas 0, "low". The papers do not say whether the samples were dried or cooked. Tinned chickpeas were not measured separately; heat does not remove histamine, but the chickpeas tested had none to begin with, so we rate tinned ones 0 as an estimate. Hummus is a different case. It adds tahini and garlic, which our sources did not measure, and lemon, which we rate 1, and shop-bought tubs sit chilled for days. We rate hummus 1 as an estimate; a batch made at home and eaten within a day or two keeps closest to the tested chickpeas. Cook chickpeas fresh or freeze them in portions, because amines form as cooked food is stored.
Questions about chickpeas and histamine
Is hummus low histamine?
Hummus itself was not measured. Chickpeas had no detectable histamine, but tahini and garlic were not tested in our sources and lemon is rated 1, so we rate hummus 1 as an estimate. Fresh homemade hummus is closer to the tested ingredients than a tub kept chilled for days.
Are canned chickpeas high in histamine?
Tinned chickpeas were not measured separately. Canning does not remove histamine, but the chickpeas tested had none, so we rate tinned chickpeas 0 as an estimate. Once opened, treat them like fresh cooked chickpeas.
Evidence behind this page
- Four chickpea samples sold in Spain had no detectable histamine, tyramine or cadaverine; putrescine averaged 3.63 mg/kg (0.90–6.39). 1
- Across the studies in a 2018 review, chickpeas had no histamine, 1–6 mg/kg of putrescine and 15–85 mg/kg of spermidine; the review suggests their polyamine content may explain why some diets exclude them. 1
- DAO can also break down the polyamines spermidine and spermine, with lower affinity than histamine. 1
- Fewer than 20% of the low-histamine diets compared in a 2020 review exclude chickpeas, and the same review found no histamine in 11 pooled legume samples. 2
- A 2024 clinical review lists legumes among the foods a low-histamine diet avoids. 3
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)
- 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)
- Jochum C. Histamine Intolerance: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Beyond. Nutrients 16(8):1219, 2024. doi:10.3390/nu16081219 (Jochum C 2024)
- 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)