Is milk high in histamine?

Milk is low in histamine: five milks tested in Spain had no histamine and none of the other biogenic amines measured. Only one of ten published low-histamine diets excludes it.

Low

Generally well tolerated. Rated 0 of 3. Measured in lab studies.

1 of 10 published low-histamine diets exclude milk¹

Histamine: Not detected
Other amines: Low
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
Lab measurements, Spain ¹	Measured	No histamine or other biogenic amines detected in 5 milk samples.
10 published low-histamine diets ¹	Mostly fine	1 of 10 excludes milk.
Review of low-histamine diets, 2020 ³	Mostly fine	Milk is among the foods excluded by fewer than 20% of published diets.
Clinical review, 2024 ⁴	Avoid	Lists milk among foods a low-histamine diet avoids.
SIGHI food list ⁵	See source	See SIGHI's own list for its rating.

Measured histamine

Food tested	Samples	Histamine	Other amines
Milk sold in Spain ¹ (Table 1)	5	not detected	putrescine, cadaverine, tyramine, spermidine and spermine not detected
Soy milk (another study) ² (Table 1)	3	not detected	putrescine mean 1.02 mg/kg; tyramine not detected

mg/kg = milligrams of histamine per kilogram of food. "Not detected" means below the laboratory's detection limit.

How freshness and processing change it

Milk had no amines in the survey. Histamine appears in dairy when milk is ripened into cheese: unripened cheese had none, while aged cheeses averaged 18 to 59 mg/kg depending on the milk. Yogurt has its own page; kefir and other fermented milks were not measured.

Why we rate milk 0

Milk is about as low in biogenic amines as a food gets. In a University of Barcelona survey of foods sold in Spain, five milk samples had no detectable histamine, and none of the other five amines the team measured either: putrescine, cadaverine, tyramine, spermidine and spermine were all absent. Only one of the ten published low-histamine diets in the team's 2021 review excludes milk, and an earlier review from the same group put milk among the foods excluded by fewer than one diet in five.

Five samples is a small number, but the result fits what is known about where histamine in food comes from. Bacteria make it during fermentation, ripening and long storage, and fresh milk has been through none of those. Cheese shows the difference. In the same group's data, unripened (fresh) cheese had no detectable histamine in 20 samples, cheese made from pasteurised milk averaged 18.05 mg/kg, and cheese made from raw milk averaged 59.37 mg/kg, with one sample at 389.86 mg/kg. The histamine comes with the ripening.

Not every source agrees. A 2024 clinical review lists milk among the foods a low-histamine diet avoids, and it gives no measurements for milk. None of the Spanish surveys we use found histamine in plain milk.

We rate milk 0, "low". If you are looking at plant milks, only soy milk has been measured in our sources: three samples in another study had no histamine. Oat, almond, rice and coconut drinks were not measured.

Lactose intolerance and cow's milk allergy are separate conditions with their own symptoms, and this rating says nothing about either. If milk gives you symptoms, ask your doctor or dietitian which of these is the cause rather than assuming it is histamine.

Questions about milk and histamine

Is cheese high in histamine if milk is not?

Often, yes. Histamine forms as cheese ripens. Unripened cheese had none in 20 samples, while cheese made from pasteurised milk averaged 18.05 mg/kg and cheese made from raw milk 59.37 mg/kg.

Are plant milks lower in histamine than cow's milk?

Cow's milk had none, so there is no histamine to save. Of the plant milks, only soy milk was measured in our sources, and it had none either. Oat, almond, rice and coconut drinks were not measured.

Evidence behind this page

Five milk samples sold in Spain had no detectable histamine, putrescine, cadaverine, tyramine, spermidine or spermine. ¹
One of ten published low-histamine diets excludes milk; an earlier review found milk excluded by fewer than 20% of diets. ¹³
Unripened cheese had no detectable histamine in 20 samples, against averages of 18.05 mg/kg in pasteurised-milk cheese and 59.37 mg/kg in raw-milk cheese. ³
In another study, three soy milk samples had no detectable histamine. ²
A 2024 clinical review lists milk among foods that low-histamine diets avoid. ⁴

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)
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)
Jochum C. Histamine Intolerance: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Beyond. Nutrients 16(8):1219, 2024. doi:10.3390/nu16081219 (Jochum C 2024)
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)