Is pear high in histamine?

Why we rate pear 1

Pears are a fruit where the question "is it high in histamine?" has never been answered directly. The 2018 review by a University of Barcelona team found two studies that tested pears, and neither reported histamine, so we label pear "not measured". What they did report was putrescine. Three pears in one study had between 23.6 and 24.2 mg/kg, while two pears in another had 1.5 mg/kg. The review puts spreads like this down mainly to differences in production, transport and storage; the studies do not tell us which pears were which.

Pears also carry a lot of spermidine and spermine, two polyamines. Across studies the review reports 30 to 76 mg/kg of spermidine and 8 to 49 mg/kg of spermine in pears. DAO, the gut enzyme that breaks down histamine, can break these down as well, though less readily. The review lists pears among the plant foods that some low-histamine diets exclude, and suggests their high polyamine content may be the reason. Whether that competition matters in people has not been tested: the only study the team's 2021 review could find on other amines slowing histamine breakdown was done in rats, in 1985.

Pears are not on the 2021 review's chart of foods excluded by ten published diets, and none of our sources lists them as a suspected "histamine liberator".

We rate pear 1, "mostly low", as an estimate. A fresh pear is not fermented, aged or a stored protein food, so there is no particular reason to expect histamine in it, and on that alone it would be a 0. We move it up one step because one study found putrescine well above the 10 mg/kg average we treat as notable. Apples, which had far less putrescine in the same review, are the obvious swap if pears do not suit you. If pears bother you and apples do not, the other amines are the likely question to raise with your dietitian. Perry, which is fermented pear juice, is a different product and is not covered by this rating.

Questions about pear and histamine

Is a pear high in histamine?

Histamine has not been measured in pears. They do contain putrescine, up to about 24 mg/kg in one study, and polyamines, so we rate pear 1 as an estimate.

Are pears or apples better on a low-histamine diet?

Neither has been tested for histamine. Apples had less putrescine (up to 1.7 mg/kg) than pears (up to 24.2 mg/kg) in the studies we use, so we rate apple 0 and pear 1, both as estimates.

Evidence behind this page

• One study found putrescine from 23.6 to 24.2 mg/kg in three pears and another found 1.5 mg/kg in two; neither reported histamine (2018 review, Table 2). ¹
• Across studies, pears contained putrescine from 2 to 25 mg/kg, spermidine from 30 to 76 mg/kg and spermine from 8 to 49 mg/kg (2018 review, Table 4). ¹
• The 2018 review lists pears among plant foods excluded from low-histamine diets and says their high polyamine content may justify it. ¹
• DAO can also break down the polyamines spermidine and spermine, though with a lower affinity than histamine. ¹
• Pears are not on the 2021 review's chart of foods excluded by ten published low-histamine diets. ²
• The only study on other amines slowing histamine breakdown that the 2021 review found was done in rats, in 1985. 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)