Is coconut water high in histamine?
Coconut water is probably mostly low in histamine, but it was not measured in our sources. It is not fermented, yet packaged fruit drinks can pick up histamine during processing, as pineapple juice did.
- 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fruit juice study in the 2018 review 1 | Coconut water was not tested. Pineapple juice had histamine although fresh pineapple had none; apple juice had none. | |
| 10 published low-histamine diets (2021 review) 2 | Coconut and coconut water are not on the review's chart of excluded foods. | |
| Review of amines in beverages, 2022 3 | In fruit drinks, fruit hygiene and good manufacturing practice, pasteurisation included, can prevent amine formation. | |
| SIGHI food list 4 | See source | See SIGHI's own list for its rating. |
How freshness and processing change it
Fresh coconut water drunk straight from the nut has had no time to change. Packaged coconut water has been processed and stored, and storage after opening was not studied; neither form was measured.
Not measured. Not processed or stored before you drink it. (estimate)
Not measured. Processed and stored; some packaged fruit juices had histamine although the fruit had none. (estimate)
Why we rate coconut water 1
Coconut water has not been measured for histamine in any study we use, and we found no figures for coconut at all in the tables we rely on. So this page is an estimate, based on how coconut water is produced and on what happened to other fruit drinks when they were measured.
Fruit itself is consistently low. A 2020 review from a University of Barcelona team pooled 136 fruit samples and found an average of 0.07 mg/kg of histamine, with a highest single value of 2.51 mg/kg. The review does not say which fruits were included, so coconut may not have been among them, but the pattern is clear: fresh fruit rarely carries much histamine.
Packaged fruit drinks are a different matter. In a study of commercial juices included in the team's 2018 review, pineapple juice averaged 2.44 mg/kg of histamine even though fresh pineapple had none, and orange and grapefruit juices had traces. The study's authors concluded that the histamine came from a lack of hygiene during processing or storage. Apple juice, from the same study, had none, which shows that processing does not always add it. A 2022 review of amines in drinks makes the same point from the other side: good hygiene and manufacturing practice, pasteurisation included, can prevent amines forming in fruit drinks.
Coconut water sits between those cases. Drunk straight from a freshly opened young coconut, it has not been processed or stored, and there is no fermentation, so we would expect little or none. Sold in cartons or bottles, it has been extracted, treated and stored before it reaches you, which are the stages at which pineapple juice picked up histamine.
We rate packaged coconut water 1, "mostly low", as an estimate, and fresh coconut water 0. Neither has been measured. Storage after opening was not studied, but since the juice data link histamine to storage, an opened carton is best drunk soon rather than kept for days. Coconut milk is a different product, made from the flesh, and has its own page.
Questions about coconut water and histamine
Is coconut water low in histamine?
Probably, but it has not been measured. It is not fermented, and fruit as a group is very low in histamine. Packaged fruit drinks can pick some up during processing or storage, so we rate packaged coconut water 1.
Is coconut water better than fruit juice on a low-histamine diet?
We cannot say from measurements, because coconut water was not tested. Apple juice had no histamine in ten samples, which makes it the best-documented choice among juices.
Evidence behind this page
- In a study of commercial fruit juices, pineapple juice averaged 2.44 mg/kg of histamine although fresh pineapple had none; the authors attributed histamine in grapefruit, orange and pineapple juice to a lack of hygienic quality during processing or storage. Apple juice had none. 1
- Fruits as a group had very little histamine, averaging 0.07 mg/kg across 136 samples, with a highest value of 2.51 mg/kg. 5
- In non-fermented beverages such as fruit juices, the hygiene of the fruit and good manufacturing practices, pasteurisation included, can prevent amine formation from microbial growth before, during and after production. 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)
- 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)
- Visciano P, Schirone M. Update on Biogenic Amines in Fermented and Non-Fermented Beverages. Foods 11(3):353, 2022. doi:10.3390/foods11030353 (Visciano P et al. 2022)
- 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)