Meat and histamine: Are there low-histamine meats?
Most types of meat are high in histamine. Organs, salami, or sausages contain particularly high levels of histamine. Are there also low-histamine meat options? We at HistaFood will tell you.
Meat and Histamine
How Histidine becomes Histamine
Especially in protein-rich foods like meat, histidine is formed through heating or after long storage due to bacterial decomposition, which in turn is converted into histamine. The longer a food is stored and heated, the more the conversion of histidine to histamine is promoted. Therefore, Mettwurst, raw ham, or salami are very high in histamine. Their storage period is three to six months. In addition, histidine develops at room temperature, during cooking, or even during longer storage in the refrigerator. The refrigerator should not be set warmer than 5 degrees Celsius. Caution is also advised when consuming minced meat, as it spoils very quickly. The amino acids contained then form biogenic amines, including histamine. Too large an amount of biogenic amines can even lead to poisoning. People with a histamine problem should therefore ideally consume minced meat on the same day it is purchased.
Histamine in Meat
When consuming meat, there are a few things to consider if the meat is to be low in histamine:
- Only buy products where there is high turnover
- Buy meat that sells quickly, such as schnitzel
- Do not interrupt the cold chain for too long: Put meat directly into the refrigerator after purchase and ideally take a cooler bag with you
- Avoid cured, dried, smoked, preserved, and long-stored meat
- Do not consume marinated meat: yeast extract, glutamate, and spice mixtures are incompatible
- Do not heat for longer than 20 minutes
- Do not reheat meat after it has cooled
Instead of relying on ready-made spice blends, you can also season fresh meat with a few selected ingredients. Our organic HerbSalt consists of organic herbs and sea salt – completely without flavor enhancers or unnecessary additives. It is suitable for a low-histamine, low-fructose, gluten-free, and lactose-free diet and adds a natural seasoning to many meat dishes.
Lieferzeit: 2-3 Tage
Histamine: frozen meat
The fresher the meat, the less histamine it contains. If you don't consume the meat immediately, you should freeze it in the freezer to slow down the growth processes of microorganisms. Nevertheless, avoid long storage. The freezer compartment in the refrigerator is often not comparable to a chest freezer or an upright freezer, as the same low temperature cannot be reached.
Thawing meat and histamine
Leftovers should preferably be frozen directly instead of being kept in the refrigerator for a long time if the meat is not intended to be eaten immediately. After thawing, the meat should be processed directly to counteract histamine formation.
Low-histamine meat
For people with histamine problems, there are also some low-histamine types of meat that can be consumed. These include:
- fresh chicken
- fresh veal
- fresh beef
- turkey
- duck
- fresh pork (moderately tolerated)
It is not always possible to choose fresh or optimally stored meat. For example, when eating out, traveling, or at invitations. For precisely these situations, we have developed our DaoFit. The vegan DAO capsules are taken before a histamine-rich meal and are a practical companion on the go.
Lieferzeit: 2-3 Tage
