Is polenta high in histamine?
Polenta is probably low in histamine, but neither polenta nor cornmeal has been measured. A corn breakfast cereal had no histamine in eight samples, and dry cornmeal is not fermented. Aged cheese stirred in changes that.
- 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Corn breakfast cereal measured in Spain 1 | Measured | Polenta was not tested. Eight samples of corn and chocolate breakfast cereal had no detectable histamine. |
| 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 | Polenta and corn are 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. |
How freshness and processing change it
Dry polenta and cornmeal keep well and are not fermented. Ready-made polenta sold in tubes or blocks, and cooked polenta kept for several days, were not measured; we rate them a step higher because they are stored moist after cooking.
Not measured. Dry, unfermented cornmeal; a corn cereal had no histamine. (estimate)
Not measured. Cooked, packed and stored before you buy it. (estimate)
Not measured. Aged and grated cheese averaged 33.10 mg/kg. (estimate)
Why we rate polenta 0
Polenta is coarsely ground dried corn, cooked into a soft porridge or left to set and then grilled or baked. It was not measured in the studies we use, and neither was cornmeal or grits. The closest measured foods are a corn breakfast cereal and fresh sweet corn, and they need to be read separately.
The University of Barcelona team tested eight samples of breakfast cereal listed as corn and chocolate cereals and found no histamine, tyramine or cadaverine, with putrescine averaging just 0.32 mg/kg. More broadly, 28 cereal samples pooled in the team's 2020 review averaged 0.12 mg/kg of histamine, and none had more than 0.89 mg/kg. The 2018 review explains that cereals in principle contain no amines other than putrescine, and that this putrescine comes from the plant itself.
Sweet corn is the vegetable form of the same plant, picked young and eaten fresh, while polenta is milled from mature, dried kernels. Five samples of sweet corn sold in Spain had no histamine either, but their putrescine averaged 38.44 mg/kg. The team's 2021 review points out that sweet corn is not excluded by the low-histamine diets it compared despite that putrescine. The corn cereal's much lower figure suggests the sweet corn number does not carry over to dried corn products, but cornmeal itself was never tested.
How polenta is made supports a low rating. The corn is dried and milled, and nothing is fermented. Histamine in food forms mainly when bacteria break down the amino acid histidine, as in fermented and spoiled foods. It also survives cooking, so what matters for polenta is how long it has been kept after cooking, not how long it was simmered.
We rate polenta 0, "low", as an estimate, and this page says plainly that it was not measured. Soft polenta made from dry meal and eaten fresh is what the rating covers. Ready-made polenta sold in tubes or blocks is cooked and stored before you buy it, so we rate it 1 as an estimate. Parmesan stirred in changes polenta more than anything else: cured, semi-cured and grated cheese averaged 33.10 mg/kg across 80 samples in the Spanish survey. Olive oil and fresh herbs keep it low.
Questions about polenta and histamine
Is corn low in histamine?
Corn as a grain was not measured. A corn and chocolate breakfast cereal had no histamine in eight samples, and sweet corn had none in five, although sweet corn was high in putrescine. Polenta, made from dried corn, was not measured; we rate it low as an estimate.
Is popcorn low in histamine?
Popcorn was not measured in the studies we use. It is dried corn heated until it pops, with no fermentation, so plain popcorn fits the same reasoning as polenta. Cheese and caramel coatings were not measured.
Evidence behind this page
- Breakfast cereal listed as corn and chocolate cereal had no detectable histamine, tyramine or cadaverine in eight samples; putrescine averaged 0.32 mg/kg (Table 3). 1
- Sweet corn sold in Spain had no detectable histamine in five samples, but putrescine averaged 38.44 mg/kg (Table 1). 1
- Sweet corn is among foods with relevant putrescine that low-histamine diets do not exclude (Section 3). 3
- Across 28 cereal samples, histamine averaged 0.12 mg/kg, with a maximum of 0.89 mg/kg (Table 1). 2
- Cured, semi-cured and grated cheese sold in Spain averaged 33.10 mg/kg of histamine across 80 samples (Table 1). 3
- Histamine in foods is formed mainly by bacteria decarboxylating histidine, so fermented and spoiled foods are the ones likely to accumulate it (Section 1). 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)