Is sourdough bread high in histamine?

Why we rate sourdough bread 2

Sourdough is the bread most often questioned on low-histamine diets, and it is also one with no direct measurements. None of the studies we use tested a sourdough loaf. The University of Barcelona team's survey found no histamine in white or wholemeal bread sold in Spain, but the 2018 review does not say how those loaves were raised, so we cannot assume any of them were sourdough.

What makes sourdough different is the starter. Ordinary bread is usually raised with baker's yeast; a sourdough starter is a culture of wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria, kept going by feeding it flour and water. Bacteria are what matter for histamine, because histamine in food is formed mainly by bacteria breaking down the amino acid histidine. The team's 2020 review says this ability depends on the species and strain, and that some lactic acid bacteria form histamine in cheese, fermented meat, fermented vegetables and fermented drinks. That is why fermented foods are excluded from most low-histamine diets.

The closest measurement we found is a 2024 laboratory study of kisra, a Sudanese sourdough flatbread made from sorghum. In naturally fermented batches, histamine rose from none in the fresh batter to 6.64 mg/kg after 24 hours, and the baked bread had 14.76 mg/kg, the highest level in the study. Baking did not remove it. When the same bread was made with selected lactic acid bacteria as the starter, no histamine formed at any stage. Kisra is not a wheat or rye loaf, it was made in a laboratory rather than bought, and it is a single small study, so these figures show that sourdough fermentation can form histamine, not how much a loaf from your bakery contains.

The published lists say little. Sourdough is not on the 2021 chart of foods excluded by ten low-histamine diets. The 2018 review names the fermented foods those diets exclude as cheese, sausages, wine, beer, sauerkraut and fermented soy, not bread, and a 2024 clinical review lists bread among low-histamine foods without separating sourdough.

We rate sourdough 2, "moderate", as an estimate, and this page says plainly that it was not measured. It is a fermented food, the one related study found histamine forming in a natural ferment, and you cannot tell from a loaf which bacteria raised it. If you are keeping histamine low, white or wholemeal bread, both measured with no histamine, is the safer everyday choice. If sourdough suits you, there is no measurement saying you must give it up; it is a good one to reintroduce on its own, with your dietitian, and watch how you respond.

Questions about sourdough bread and histamine

Is sourdough bread high in histamine?

It has not been measured. It is fermented with lactic acid bacteria, some of which can form histamine, and a lab study of a sorghum sourdough flatbread found 14.76 mg/kg after baking. We rate sourdough moderate as an estimate.

Is sourdough better than yeast bread for histamine?

Not on the evidence we have. White and wholemeal bread sold in Spain had no detectable histamine. Sourdough was not measured, and its bacteria are the part that can form histamine.

Evidence behind this page

• In naturally fermented kisra, a Sudanese sorghum sourdough flatbread made in the laboratory, histamine rose from none to 6.64 mg/kg in the first 24 hours of fermentation and was highest, 14.76 mg/kg, in the baked bread; baking increased it (Section 3.1.3, Figure 3A). ¹
• Kisra made with selected lactic acid bacteria starters formed no histamine, tyramine or cadaverine at any stage, and less putrescine (Section 3.3.3, Figure 5). ¹
• White and wholemeal bread sold in Spain had no detectable histamine (Table 3). ²
• The ability of bacteria to form histamine is species- and strain-dependent, and various lactic acid bacteria form histamine in cheeses, fermented meat, fermented vegetables and fermented drinks (Section 3). Fermented products are systematically excluded from low-histamine diets (Section 5.4.1). ³
• The fermented foods low-histamine diets exclude are named as cheeses, sausages, wine, beer, sauerkraut and fermented soy derivatives (Section 5). ²
• A 2024 clinical review gives bread as an example of a food low in histamine. ⁵

Sources

1. Hassan AAA, Jin YH, Mah JH. Effects of Lactic Acid Bacteria on Reducing the Formation of Biogenic Amines and Improving the Formation of Antioxidant Compounds in Traditional African Sourdough Flatbread Fermentation. Antioxidants 13(7):844, 2024. doi:10.3390/antiox13070844 (Hassan AAA et al. 2024)
2. 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)
3. 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)
4. 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)
5. Jochum C. Histamine Intolerance: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Beyond. Nutrients 16(8):1219, 2024. doi:10.3390/nu16081219 (Jochum C 2024)
6. 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)