Is garlic high in histamine?
Garlic has not been tested for histamine; we estimate fresh garlic low, as an unfermented bulb related to onion, which had no histamine or other amines in lab tests.
- 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Onion, a related bulb, measured in Spain 1 | No histamine, tyramine, putrescine or cadaverine in 4 onions. Garlic was not tested. | |
| Spices as a food group, 2020 review 2 | No detectable histamine in 12 spice samples; the spices are not named, so garlic powder may not be among them. | |
| 10 published low-histamine diets 3 | Garlic is not on the review's chart of foods the diets exclude. | |
| SIGHI food list 4 | See source | See SIGHI's own list for its rating. |
How freshness and processing change it
Whole garlic bulbs keep for months in a dry place, and no study we use followed amines in them. Jarred minced garlic, garlic kept in oil, garlic powder and black garlic are prepared or stored differently and were not measured.
Not measured. (estimate)
Not measured; a group of 12 spices had no histamine, but the spices are not named. (estimate)
Not measured; prepared and then stored for longer. (estimate)
Not measured; made by holding whole bulbs warm for weeks. (estimate)
Why we rate garlic 0
Garlic has not been tested for histamine in the studies we use, so this page is an estimate. It is a common question, because garlic goes into so much savoury cooking.
The closest measured food is onion, from the same plant genus. A University of Barcelona team tested four onions sold in Spain and found no histamine, tyramine, putrescine or cadaverine at all, the cleanest result of any vegetable in their survey. Other studies collected in the team's 2018 review reported low putrescine in onion and no histamine. That is a reason for optimism about garlic, but it is not a measurement of it.
From how garlic is grown and kept, there is no obvious route to histamine. Fresh garlic is not fermented, not aged and not a protein food, and the studies we use trace high histamine in food mainly to bacteria acting on spoiled protein foods and to fermentation. Whole bulbs keep for months in a dry place, and cooking does not create histamine.
The processed forms are different questions. Garlic powder is a dried seasoning, and a 2020 review from the same team reported no detectable histamine in a group of 12 spice samples sold in Spain. It does not name them, so we cannot say garlic powder was included. Jarred minced garlic and garlic kept in oil are prepared and then stored for longer. Black garlic is made by holding whole bulbs warm for weeks, which is a form of ageing. None of these were measured, and we rate the stored and aged ones one step higher as a precaution.
Garlic does not appear among the foods charted as excluded by the ten published low-histamine diets in the team's 2021 review. Because that chart covers only some foods, we say only that no diet in our sources excludes it.
We rate fresh garlic 0, "low", as an estimate. If garlic gives you symptoms, that is worth raising with your doctor or dietitian rather than assuming histamine is the cause.
Questions about garlic and histamine
Is garlic high in histamine?
Garlic has not been measured. We estimate fresh garlic low, rated 0: it is not fermented or aged, and onion, its close relative, had no histamine or other amines in lab tests.
Is garlic powder low histamine?
Garlic powder was not measured. A group of 12 spice samples sold in Spain had no detectable histamine, but the review does not name them, so we cannot say garlic powder was one of them. We estimate it at 0.
Evidence behind this page
- Garlic does not appear in the measurement tables of the 2018 or 2021 reviews. 13
- Four onions sold in Spain had no detectable histamine, tyramine, putrescine or cadaverine, and other studies reported no histamine in onion. 1
- A group of 12 spice samples sold in Spain had no detectable histamine; the review does not name the spices. 2
- Histamine in food is mainly formed by bacteria acting on the amino acid histidine, so foods spoiled by bacteria and fermented foods are the ones likely to accumulate it. 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)
- 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)