Is muesli high in histamine?
Muesli is probably mostly low in histamine, but it has not been measured. Its oat and barley flakes had none; its nuts had histamine in some samples, and its dried fruit was never tested.
- 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cereal flakes measured in Spain 1 | Measured | Muesli was not tested. Oats and barley had no detectable histamine. |
| Review of low-histamine diets, 2020 2 | 41 nut samples averaged 0.45 mg/kg of histamine, most with none and the highest 11.86 mg/kg; nuts are excluded by 20–60% of diets. | |
| 10 published low-histamine diets 3 | Muesli is not on the review's chart; nuts are excluded by 2 of 10 and yogurt by 4 of 10. | |
| SIGHI food list 4 | See source | See SIGHI's own list for its rating. |
How freshness and processing change it
Dry muesli was not measured and keeps for weeks; whether storage changes the amines in its nuts was not studied. Bircher muesli soaked overnight in the fridge was not measured either. Make it the night before, not days ahead.
Not measured. Nuts had histamine in some samples; dried fruit was never tested. (estimate)
Not measured. Oats and barley had no histamine. (estimate)
Not measured. Soaked in the fridge, not fermented; rated like the dry mix. (estimate)
Why we rate muesli 1
Muesli is granola's unbaked cousin: rolled oats and other cereal flakes mixed with nuts, seeds and dried fruit, eaten with milk or yogurt, or soaked overnight as Bircher muesli. None of the studies we use measured muesli, so the rating rests on its ingredients and how it is eaten.
The base is well covered. Oats sold in Spain had no histamine and 0.67 mg/kg of putrescine; barley, another common muesli flake, had none and 2.19 mg/kg. Across 28 cereal samples pooled in a 2020 review, histamine averaged 0.12 mg/kg, none above 0.89 mg/kg. Wheat, rye and spelt flakes were not measured.
Nuts are the reason we do not rate muesli 0. In the University of Barcelona team's 2021 survey, 47 nut samples had no detectable histamine, but a 2020 summary of 41 samples from the same team found an average of 0.45 mg/kg, with most at none and the highest at 11.86 mg/kg. The nuts also differ in putrescine: pistachios averaged 14.84 mg/kg, almonds 2.47 mg/kg and hazelnuts 1.18 mg/kg. Two of the ten published low-histamine diets exclude nuts.
Dried fruit is the gap. None of our sources measured it. Raisins, dried apricots and banana chips come from fruits that had no histamine when tested fresh, but drying removes water, and the 2018 review explains that when food loses water during cooking, the amines in it become more concentrated. Fresh banana already had 37.94 mg/kg of putrescine. The fresh figures cannot simply be carried over.
How you eat it matters too. Milk sold in Spain had no detectable histamine in five samples, and plain yogurt none in five, although four of the ten diets exclude yogurt. Bircher muesli is soaked in the fridge, not fermented, so it is unlikely to differ much from the dry mix, but it was not measured.
We rate muesli 1, "mostly low", as an estimate, and this page says plainly that it was not measured. A plain oat or mixed-flake muesli without nuts or dried fruit we rate 0 as an estimate. Adding fresh fruit at the table rather than buying a mix with dried fruit keeps the bowl closest to what was measured.
Questions about muesli and histamine
Is muesli low in histamine?
Muesli was not measured. Its oat and barley flakes had no histamine, but nuts had histamine in some samples and dried fruit was never tested, so we rate typical muesli 1 as an estimate, and plain flake muesli 0.
Is Bircher muesli low in histamine?
It was not measured. It is soaked in the fridge overnight rather than fermented, so we rate it like the dry muesli, 1 as an estimate. Milk and plain yogurt had no detectable histamine in Spanish tests.
Evidence behind this page
- Oats sold in Spain had no detectable histamine and 0.67 mg/kg of putrescine; barley had none and 2.19 mg/kg (Table 3). Among nuts, putrescine averaged 14.84 mg/kg in pistachios, 2.47 mg/kg in almonds and 1.18 mg/kg in hazelnuts, all with no detectable histamine (Table 2). 1
- Across 41 nut samples, histamine averaged 0.45 mg/kg, median not detected, maximum 11.86 mg/kg; across 28 cereal samples it averaged 0.12 mg/kg (Table 1). Nuts are excluded by 20–60% of low-histamine diets (Table 3). 2
- Nuts sold in Spain had no detectable histamine in 47 samples; grapes, apricots and bananas had none either, though banana averaged 37.94 mg/kg of putrescine; milk had no detectable histamine in five samples and yogurt none in five (Table 1). Two of ten published diets exclude nuts and four exclude yogurt (Figure 1). 3
- Amines are heat-stable, so cooking changes their levels mainly by transfer to the cooking water or by dilution or concentration as the food gains or loses water (Section 4). 1
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)