Is mushroom high in histamine?
Mushroom is mostly low in histamine: none was found in lab tests, but putrescine, a related amine, varied from almost none to high between studies. Few published diets exclude it.
- Histamine
- Not detected
- Other amines
- Notable levels
- Liberator
- Not on the lists we use
- DAO blocker
- No evidence
What each source says
| Source | Verdict | What it says, in our words |
|---|---|---|
| Lab measurements, Spain 1 | Measured | No detectable histamine in 11 samples; putrescine averaged 1.29 mg/kg. |
| Review of low-histamine diets, 2020 2 | Fewer than 20% of the diets it compared exclude mushrooms; it suggests putrescine may explain reactions. | |
| 10 published low-histamine diets (2021 review) 3 | Mushrooms are not on the review's chart of excluded foods. | |
| SIGHI food list 4 | See source | See SIGHI's own list for its rating. |
Measured histamine
| Food tested | Samples | Histamine | Other amines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mushrooms sold in Spain 1 (Table 1) | 11 | not detected | putrescine mean 1.29 mg/kg (0.02–3.65); tyramine not detected |
| Other studies of mushrooms 1 (Tables 1 and 4) | — | not detected | putrescine mean 11.7 mg/kg in one study of 10 samples; from not detected to 156 mg/kg in a survey of 213 samples |
mg/kg = milligrams of histamine per kilogram of food. "Not detected" means below the laboratory's detection limit.
How freshness and processing change it
The studies we use did not say how old the mushrooms were, and none followed amines during storage, so we cannot tell you whether older mushrooms have more. Dried, canned and marinated mushrooms were not measured.
No histamine; putrescine low in one survey, up to 156 mg/kg in another. (measured)
Why we rate mushroom 1
Mushrooms sit on the edge of many low-histamine lists, and the measurements explain why the answer is "it depends" rather than yes or no. Histamine itself is not the issue. A University of Barcelona team tested eleven mushrooms sold in Spain and found none, and the other studies they reviewed also report no histamine in mushrooms.
The open question is putrescine, an amine that some researchers think competes with histamine for the gut enzyme that breaks it down. Here the studies disagree sharply. The Barcelona mushrooms averaged just 1.29 mg/kg of putrescine. Another study of ten samples averaged 11.7 mg/kg, and a survey of 213 mushroom samples found anything from none to 156 mg/kg. Those are different mushrooms, from different places and possibly at different ages, and the papers do not let us say which matters most.
A 2020 review by the same research group suggests that when people react to mushrooms, citrus, bananas or nuts, putrescine and other amines may be the reason rather than histamine. It also found that fewer than one in five of the published low-histamine diets it compared exclude mushrooms. In the team's 2021 chart of foods excluded by ten diets, mushrooms do not appear at all.
We rate mushroom 1, "mostly low". On histamine alone it would be a 0, but one study found an average putrescine level above the 10 mg/kg threshold we use, and the range in the large survey is too wide to ignore. If mushrooms suit you, there is no histamine reason to avoid them. If they do not, the putrescine question is the likely one to raise with your dietitian.
Questions about mushroom and histamine
Do mushrooms release histamine in the body?
None of the sources we use describes mushrooms as releasing histamine. The 2020 review points to putrescine instead, and the evidence for that is limited.
Evidence behind this page
- Eleven mushrooms sold in Spain had no detectable histamine; putrescine averaged 1.29 mg/kg. 1
- Other studies found mushroom putrescine averaging 11.7 mg/kg (10 samples) and ranging up to 156 mg/kg (213 samples). 1
- Fewer than 20% of the low-histamine diets compared in a 2020 review exclude mushrooms, and the review suggests reactions to mushrooms may come from putrescine. 2
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)