Is rice high in histamine?
Rice is low in histamine: none was found in rice sold in Spain, and 28 cereal samples averaged 0.12 mg/kg. A 2024 clinical review gives rice as an example of a low-histamine food.
- 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 rice; putrescine averaged 2.4 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 | Rice is not on the review's chart of foods the diets exclude. | |
| Clinical review, 2024 4 | Gives rice as an example of a food low in histamine. | |
| SIGHI food list 5 | See source | See SIGHI's own list for its rating. |
Measured histamine
| Food tested | Samples | Histamine | Other amines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rice sold in Spain 1 (Table 3) | 2 | not detected | putrescine mean 2.4 mg/kg; 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 rice keeps well and had no histamine. Cooked rice kept as leftovers was not measured. Cool and refrigerate cooked rice quickly anyway, for ordinary food-safety reasons that have nothing to do with histamine.
No histamine in rice; cooking does not create it. (measured)
Why we rate rice 0
Rice is one of the safest staples on a low-histamine diet, and every source we use points the same way. A University of Barcelona team found no histamine, tyramine or cadaverine in rice sold in Spain, and only a little putrescine, averaging 2.4 mg/kg. Four other studies collected in the team's 2018 review measured putrescine in rice at 0.2 to 1.2 mg/kg on average, and none reported histamine.
The weak point is the number of samples: the Spanish figure comes from just two. That is why the cereal group figure matters. A 2020 review from the same team pooled 28 cereal samples and found an average of 0.12 mg/kg of histamine, with the highest single sample at 0.89 mg/kg. The 2018 review explains why grains are so consistently low: in principle they contain no amines other than putrescine, and that putrescine has a physiological origin, coming from the plant itself rather than from bacteria.
The published diets agree. Rice does not appear among the foods charted as excluded by the ten low-histamine diets in the team's 2021 review, and a 2024 clinical review gives rice as an example of a food low in histamine.
We rate rice 0, "low". White, brown, basmati and jasmine rice were not reported separately, and there is no measured reason to rate them differently. Leftover cooked rice was not measured for histamine, but it does need care for another reason: cooked rice left at room temperature is a known food-safety risk, so cool it quickly and keep it in the fridge. Rice milk, rice vinegar and rice wine are different products, made by processing or fermentation, and were not measured.
Questions about rice and histamine
Is leftover rice high in histamine?
It was not measured in the studies we use. Grains are not a food that usually builds up histamine, but cooked rice should be cooled quickly and refrigerated for food-safety reasons.
Is brown rice higher in histamine than white rice?
The studies we use did not separate them. Rice and cereals as a group had little or no histamine, so there is no measured reason to prefer one over the other.
Evidence behind this page
- Rice sold in Spain had no detectable histamine, tyramine or cadaverine; putrescine averaged 2.4 mg/kg. Other studies reported putrescine in rice from 0.2 to 1.2 mg/kg. 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
- A 2024 clinical review gives rice as an example of a food low in histamine. 4
- Rice 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)
- Jochum C. Histamine Intolerance: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Beyond. Nutrients 16(8):1219, 2024. doi:10.3390/nu16081219 (Jochum C 2024)
- 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)