Is melon high in histamine?

Why we rate melon 0

Melons are on summer fruit plates everywhere, and no study we use has measured histamine in any of them: not cantaloupe, not honeydew, not the Galia or Piel de Sapo melons sold in Spain, where most of our lab data come from. Melon does not appear in the 2018 review's tables of fruits or in the 2021 table of foods sold in Spain, so we label it "not measured" and rate it from what is known about how histamine forms.

Histamine builds up mainly when bacteria break down histidine, an amino acid in protein, over time. That is why fish, meat kept too long and fermented foods top the lists. A fresh melon is mostly water and sugar with little protein, and nothing in how it is grown or sold involves fermentation.

Its measured plant relatives give the same picture. Melons belong to the same family as cucumber, courgette and pumpkin. In the Spanish survey, ten cucumbers and 41 courgettes had no detectable histamine, and pumpkin had traces in a few of 12 samples, never above 1.90 mg/kg. That is family resemblance rather than a measurement of melon, so we treat it as support, not proof. Melon is also absent from the 2021 review's chart of foods excluded by ten published low-histamine diets, and none of our sources lists it as a suspected "histamine liberator".

We rate fresh melon 0, "low", as an estimate. Two situations change the picture. Pre-cut melon sold in tubs has been sitting cut for an unknown time, which gives bacteria longer to work, so we rate it 1, also an estimate. And melon is often served with cured ham, as in the classic Spanish and Italian starter. There the ham is the part to think about: in the 2021 review, 23 samples of cured meat averaged 4.89 mg/kg of histamine, and one reached 150 mg/kg. Melon on its own, or with fresh mint, keeps the plate to the low-histamine part.

Questions about melon and histamine

Is cantaloupe high in histamine?

No study we use has measured cantaloupe or any other melon. We rate fresh melon 0 as an estimate: it is not fermented, it has little protein, and its measured relatives cucumber and courgette had no detectable histamine.

Is melon with ham low histamine?

The melon probably is; the ham is the uncertain part. Cured meat sold in Spain averaged 4.89 mg/kg of histamine across 23 samples, with one sample at 150 mg/kg.

Evidence behind this page

• No study in our sources reports histamine in melon, and it is not on the 2021 review's chart of foods excluded by ten published low-histamine diets. ²
• Histamine in food forms mainly when bacteria decarboxylate histidine; the foods most at risk are those spoiled by bacteria and fermented products. ²⁴
• Cucumbers (10 samples) and courgettes (41 samples) sold in Spain had no detectable histamine; pumpkin had a trace in a few of 12 samples, up to 1.90 mg/kg. ¹
• Cured meat sold in Spain averaged 4.89 mg/kg of histamine across 23 samples, with a highest value of 150 mg/kg. 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)