Are crackers high in histamine?

Why we rate crackers 0

Crackers were not measured in any of the studies we use, so this page rests on what they are made of and what was measured in those ingredients. Plain crackers are flour, water, fat and salt, sometimes with a little yeast, baked until dry. Flour is the part we have data for: white and wholemeal bread sold in Spain had no detectable histamine, and 28 cereal samples pooled in a 2020 review averaged 0.12 mg/kg, none above 0.89 mg/kg. The University of Barcelona team's 2018 review explains that cereals in principle contain no amines other than putrescine, which comes from the plant itself.

Histamine in food forms mainly when bacteria break down the amino acid histidine, which is why fermented foods and spoiled fish and meat are where it builds up. A plain water cracker has no fermentation step. Some crackers are made from a fermented dough, including sourdough crackers and some crispbreads, and we have no data on them. A 2024 laboratory study of a naturally fermented sorghum sourdough flatbread found 14.76 mg/kg of histamine after baking, so we rate sourdough crackers 2 as an estimate.

The flavourings are where crackers differ most. Cheese crackers carry aged cheese, one of the highest-histamine foods measured: cured, semi-cured and grated cheese sold in Spain averaged 33.10 mg/kg across 80 samples, and 5% of samples had more than 203.30 mg/kg. All ten published diets in the team's 2021 review exclude that kind of cheese. Rice crackers glazed with soy sauce carry a fermented soy product, a group that averaged 73.95 mg/kg in the same survey. Yeast extract, a common savoury flavouring, was not measured in our sources.

Crackers are not on the 2021 chart of foods excluded by ten low-histamine diets.

We rate plain crackers 0, "low", as an estimate, and this page says plainly that they were not measured. Water crackers, cream crackers and rye crispbreads made only from flour, water, fat and salt fit the rating. Cheese-flavoured, soy-glazed and sourdough crackers we rate 2, also as estimates. The ingredient list is the best guide: the shorter it is, the closer the crackers are to the flour that was measured.

Questions about crackers and histamine

What crackers are low in histamine?

None were measured. Plain crackers made from flour, water, fat and salt are closest to the bread and cereals that were measured with no histamine. Cheese-flavoured, soy-glazed and sourdough crackers carry fermented ingredients, so we rate them higher.

Are cheese crackers high in histamine?

They were not measured, but they contain aged cheese, and cured, semi-cured and grated cheese averaged 33.10 mg/kg of histamine in a Spanish survey. We rate cheese crackers moderate as an estimate.

Evidence behind this page

• White and wholemeal bread sold in Spain had no detectable histamine, and cereals contain no amines other than putrescine, which has a physiological origin (Table 3, Section 3.3). ¹
• Across 28 cereal samples, histamine averaged 0.12 mg/kg, with a maximum of 0.89 mg/kg (Table 1). ⁴
• Cured, semi-cured and grated cheese sold in Spain averaged 33.10 mg/kg of histamine across 80 samples, with 5% above 203.30 mg/kg; soy-fermented products averaged 73.95 mg/kg across 21 samples (Table 1). All ten published diets exclude cured and grated cheese (Figure 1). ²
• In a naturally fermented sorghum sourdough flatbread made in the laboratory, histamine reached 14.76 mg/kg after baking (Section 3.1.3, Figure 3A). ⁵
• Histamine in foods is formed mainly by bacteria decarboxylating histidine, so fermented and spoiled foods are the ones likely to accumulate it (Section 1). ²

Sources

1. 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)
2. 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)
3. 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)
4. 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)
5. Hassan AAA, Jin YH, Mah JH. Effects of Lactic Acid Bacteria on Reducing the Formation of Biogenic Amines and Improving the Formation of Antioxidant Compounds in Traditional African Sourdough Flatbread Fermentation. Antioxidants 13(7):844, 2024. doi:10.3390/antiox13070844 (Hassan AAA et al. 2024)