Is ricotta high in histamine?
Fresh ricotta is low in histamine: it is an unripened cheese, and 20 unripened cheeses tested in Spain had none detectable. Ricotta itself was not tested separately, and aged ricotta salata is different.
- Histamine
- Not detected
- 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lab measurements, Spain 1 | Measured | No detectable histamine in 20 unripened cheeses; ricotta was not reported separately. |
| 10 published low-histamine diets 2 | The review's chart has no bar for fresh cheese; its cheese bar, cured, semi-cured and grated cheese, is excluded by all 10. | |
| Clinical review, 2024 3 | Names aged cheese, not fresh cheese, among the foods a low-histamine diet avoids. | |
| SIGHI food list 4 | See source | See SIGHI's own list for its rating. |
Measured histamine
| Food tested | Samples | Histamine | Other amines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unripened cheese, Spanish market (group) 1 (Table 1) | 20 | not detected | not reported |
mg/kg = milligrams of histamine per kilogram of food. "Not detected" means below the laboratory's detection limit.
How freshness and processing change it
Fresh ricotta is moist and has a short shelf life, and the unripened cheeses were tested as bought. An open tub kept in the fridge was not measured. Dishes made with ricotta and kept for days, such as lasagne or stuffed pasta, are stored food, and histamine that forms during storage survives baking and reheating.
Unripened cheese group: none detected in 20 samples. (measured)
Not measured; aged until firm enough to grate, so no longer a fresh cheese. (estimate)
Not measured; a stored dish gives bacteria time, and reheating does not remove histamine. (estimate)
Why we rate ricotta 0
Ricotta is made differently from most cheese. Traditionally it comes from the whey left over after other cheese is made, often with some milk added: the liquid is heated, a little acid is stirred in, and the soft curds that rise are skimmed off and drained. It is sold fresh, without ripening, and for histamine that is what matters.
A University of Barcelona team tested 20 unripened cheeses sold in Spain and found no detectable histamine in any of them, according to their 2020 review. The review groups the cheeses rather than naming them, and it does not report other amines for fresh cheese, so ricotta's rating rests on this group and on how ricotta is made. Ripened cheese shows the other side: cheese made from pasteurised milk averaged 18.05 mg/kg and cheese made from raw milk 59.37 mg/kg, and 80 cured, semi-cured and grated cheeses in the team's 2021 survey averaged 33.10 mg/kg.
Two things change the picture. Ricotta salata is ricotta that has been salted, pressed and aged until it is firm enough to grate. It is no longer a fresh cheese, and a 2012 review of dairy foods reports that, in general, the longer a cheese ripens, the more amines it holds. It was not measured, so we rate it 2 as an estimate. The second is what ricotta goes into: lasagne, cannelloni, stuffed shells and baked cheesecake are often made ahead and eaten over several days. Histamine is heat-stable, so baking and reheating do not remove what forms while a dish sits in the fridge.
The published diets do not single out fresh cheese: the 2021 review's chart shows all ten diets excluding cured, semi-cured and grated cheese, with no bar for fresh cheese.
We rate fresh ricotta 0, "low". It is a good swap for crumbled feta in a salad or a pastry filling, for goat cheese on toast, and for some of the parmesan in a pasta sauce, where a spoonful stirred in at the end adds creaminess instead of a salty bite.
Questions about ricotta and histamine
Is ricotta low histamine?
Fresh ricotta is an unripened cheese, and 20 unripened cheeses tested in Spain had no detectable histamine, so we rate it 0. It was not tested on its own. Aged ricotta salata is not a fresh cheese and we rate it 2 as an estimate.
Evidence behind this page
- Twenty unripened cheeses sold in Spain had no detectable histamine. 1
- Cheese made from pasteurised milk averaged 18.05 mg/kg of histamine and cheese made from raw milk 59.37 mg/kg; 80 cured, semi-cured and grated cheeses averaged 33.10 mg/kg. 12
- In general, the longer a cheese ripens, the more biogenic amines it contains. 5
- Biogenic amines are heat-stable, so heat treatment does not lower them. 26
- All ten published low-histamine diets in the 2021 review exclude cured, semi-cured and grated cheese; fresh cheese is not on the review's chart. 2
Sources
- 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)
- Linares DM, del Río B, Ladero V, Martínez N, Fernández M, Martín MC, Álvarez MA. Factors Influencing Biogenic Amines Accumulation in Dairy Products. Frontiers in Microbiology 3:180, 2012. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2012.00180 (Linares DM et al. 2012)
- 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)