Is pasta high in histamine?
Pasta is low in histamine: seven samples of wheat pasta sold in Spain had none, and only a little putrescine. Filled pasta, grated cheese and leftover sauces are where histamine comes in.
- Histamine
- Not detected
- Other amines
- Low
- 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 seven samples of wheat pasta; putrescine averaged 1.56 mg/kg. |
| Review of low-histamine diets, 2020 2 | Measured | 28 cereal samples averaged 0.12 mg/kg of histamine, none above 0.89 mg/kg. |
| 10 published low-histamine diets 3 | Pasta 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. |
Measured histamine
| Food tested | Samples | Histamine | Other amines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wheat pasta sold in Spain 1 (Table 3) | 7 | not detected | putrescine mean 1.56 mg/kg (0.81–4.52); tyramine and cadaverine not detected |
| Cereals (group) 2 (Table 1) | 28 | mean 0.12 mg/kg, range nd–0.89 mg/kg | median 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
Dry pasta keeps well and had no histamine. Fresh chilled pasta, filled pasta and cooked pasta kept as leftovers were not measured. With leftovers, the sauce usually matters more than the pasta: histamine builds up in stored meat, fish and tomato sauces and survives reheating.
No histamine in seven samples; cooking does not create it. (measured)
Not measured. Flour and eggs; eggs had no histamine in 14 samples. (estimate)
Not measured. Rice and a corn-based cereal had no histamine. (estimate)
Not measured. Aged cheese and cured meat fillings can carry histamine. (estimate)
Not measured. Stored sauces build up histamine, and reheating does not remove it. (estimate)
Why we rate pasta 0
Pasta is one of the easiest bases for a low-histamine meal. A University of Barcelona team tested seven samples of wheat pasta sold in Spain and found no histamine, tyramine or cadaverine in any of them. Putrescine averaged 1.56 mg/kg, ranging from 0.81 to 4.52 mg/kg. Seven samples is more than the team tested for most grains (rice, oats and barley had two each), and the result matches the pooled cereal figure from the team's 2020 review: 28 cereal samples averaging 0.12 mg/kg of histamine, none above 0.89 mg/kg. The table does not say whether the pasta was dried or fresh.
The 2018 review gives the reason grains look like this. In principle cereals contain no amines other than putrescine, and that putrescine comes from the plant rather than from bacteria. Dried pasta is wheat and water with no fermentation step, so there is nothing in how it is made that would add histamine. Pasta is not on the 2021 chart of foods excluded by ten published low-histamine diets.
What goes on the pasta matters far more than the pasta. Grated hard cheese is one of the highest-histamine foods measured: cured, semi-cured and grated cheese averaged 33.10 mg/kg across 80 samples. Canned fish averaged 14.42 mg/kg in the 2020 review. Tomato, which nine of ten diets exclude, averaged 2.51 mg/kg in fresh tomatoes, and a sauce kept and reheated over several days carries more, because histamine survives cooking. Ravioli and tortellini often hide aged cheese or cured ham in the filling, so we rate filled pasta 2 as an estimate.
We rate pasta 0, "low". Fresh egg pasta and gluten-free pasta made from rice or corn were not measured, but their main ingredients were low in the same surveys (eggs had no histamine in 14 samples, rice none in two), so we rate them 0 as an estimate. Wholewheat pasta was not tested separately; wholemeal bread had slightly more putrescine than white bread, still low. For a low-histamine plate, cook pasta fresh and dress it with olive oil, courgette, fresh herbs or a freshly cooked chicken or vegetable sauce, and freeze leftover sauce in portions rather than keeping it in the fridge for days.
Questions about pasta and histamine
Is pasta low in histamine?
Yes. Seven samples of wheat pasta sold in Spain had no detectable histamine. The sauce and toppings decide how much histamine the dish has: grated aged cheese, canned fish and stored tomato sauce add the most.
Are noodles high in histamine?
Plain wheat noodles are made like pasta, and wheat pasta had no histamine; rice noodles are made from rice, which had none either. Neither was tested itself. Egg noodles, instant noodles and their seasoning packets were not measured.
Evidence behind this page
- Wheat pasta sold in Spain had no detectable histamine, tyramine or cadaverine in seven samples; putrescine averaged 1.56 mg/kg (0.81–4.52). 1
- Cereals contain no amines other than putrescine, which has a physiological origin. 1
- Across 28 cereal samples, histamine averaged 0.12 mg/kg, with a maximum of 0.89 mg/kg. 2
- Cured, semi-cured and grated cheese sold in Spain averaged 33.10 mg/kg of histamine across 80 samples, fresh tomatoes 2.51 mg/kg across 53, and eggs had none detectable in 14 samples (Table 1). Nine of ten published diets exclude tomato (Figure 1). 3
- Putrescine in wholemeal bread was slightly higher than in bread made with refined flour (Section 3.3). 1
- Canned fish averaged 14.42 mg/kg of histamine across 96 samples (Table 1). 2
- Pasta does not appear among the foods charted as excluded by ten published low-histamine diets. 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)