Is flaxseed high in histamine?

Flaxseed (linseed) is probably mostly low in histamine, but it has never been measured: it is sold dry and is not fermented, so there is no known route to a high level.

Mostly low

Fine for many people. Rated 1 of 3. Not measured: rated from how it is made and stored.

Histamine: Not measured
Other amines: Not measured
Liberator: Not on the lists we use
DAO blocker: No evidence

General information, not medical advice. Histamine tolerance differs between people; talk to your doctor or a registered dietitian before changing your diet.

What each source says

Source	Verdict	What it says, in our words
10 published low-histamine diets (2021 review) ¹	Not excluded	Flaxseed is not on the review's chart of excluded foods, which has a bar for nuts but none for seeds.
Review of low-histamine diets, 2020 ²	Not excluded	No seeds appear among the foods excluded by the diets it compared.
SIGHI food list ³	See source	See SIGHI's own list for its rating.

How freshness and processing change it

Whole and ground flaxseed were not measured, and no study we use followed amines in seeds during storage. A flax egg is mixed and used straight away, so it does not sit as a moist food. Flaxseed oil is a different product and was not measured.

Whole or ground flaxseed1Mostly low

Not measured. Sold dry and not fermented. (estimate)

Flax egg in baking1Mostly low

Not measured. Ground flaxseed and water, mixed and used straight away. (estimate)

Why we rate flaxseed 1

Flaxseed, also sold as linseed, has no histamine measurements in the studies we use. The papers report nothing for it: no histamine, and none of the other amines, such as putrescine, that are often used to explain why low-histamine lists exclude a food. This page is therefore an estimate built from how flaxseed is produced and used, and the rating will change if measurements appear.

Flaxseed is harvested and dried, then sold whole or ground. It is not fermented, and it does not need to be kept cold the way fresh fish or meat does. Those are the conditions under which, according to the reviews we use, histamine builds up in food: bacteria converting the amino acid histidine during fermentation or poor storage. There is no known route for dry flaxseed to reach a high level. That expectation is not the same as a measurement.

Flaxseed does not appear in the published diets we use either. The 2021 review's chart of foods excluded by ten low-histamine diets has a bar for nuts, excluded by two of them, but nothing for seeds, and an earlier comparison by the same University of Barcelona team lists no seeds among excluded foods.

The common uses add little of their own. Ground flaxseed is stirred into porridge, yogurt or bread dough, and a "flax egg", ground flaxseed mixed with water and left for a few minutes, replaces eggs in vegan baking. Because it is mixed and used straight away, it does not sit around as a moist food. It is worth knowing that eggs themselves are not a histamine problem in the data: fourteen eggs in the team's survey had no histamine, putrescine, cadaverine or tyramine. A flax egg is a swap for other reasons, such as a vegan diet or an egg allergy.

We rate flaxseed 1, "mostly low", as an estimate. Nothing about the dry seed points to histamine, but we keep 0 for foods that have been tested and found to have none, and flaxseed has not been tested. Whole and ground, brown and golden flaxseed are rated the same, because none of them has been measured. Flaxseed oil is a separate product and is not covered here.

Questions about flaxseed and histamine

Is flaxseed low histamine?

It has not been measured. Flaxseed is sold dry and is not fermented, so there is no known route to a high level, and we rate it 1, "mostly low", as an estimate.

Is linseed the same as flaxseed?

Yes. Linseed and flaxseed are two names for the same seed, and neither name appears in the histamine data we use, so the same estimate applies.

Evidence behind this page

None of the studies we use reports histamine or other amines for flaxseed; the only seed measured was sunflower seeds. ⁴¹
Histamine in food forms mainly when bacteria decarboxylate the amino acid histidine, and the highest levels are found in fermented foods and fish that is not fresh. ²¹
Fourteen eggs sold in Spain had no detectable histamine, putrescine, cadaverine or tyramine. ¹
Seeds do not appear among the foods excluded by the low-histamine diets compared in two reviews. ¹²

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)
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)
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)
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)