Biogenic amines in foods: Histamine and food processing

Abstract

Biogenic amines, e.g. histamine, occur in many different foods. At high concentrations, they are risk factors for food intoxication, whereas moderate levels may lead to food intolerance. Sensitive persons, with insufficient diamine oxidase activity, suffer from numerous undesirable reactions after intake of histamine containing foods. Besides spoiled foodstuffs, especially fermented foods tend to contain elevated levels of biogenic amines, although their concentrations vary extensively not only between different food varieties but also within the varieties themselves. High histamine content in foods and beverages result from microbial contamination. The evidence of enteral histaminosis represents a challenge for the food industry to produce foods with histamine levels as low as possible. We therefore investigated critical steps for histamine formation during food production processes, and established production methods that include low-histamine technology.

Biogenic Amine Content of Beers Consumed in Turkey and Influence of Storage Conditions on Biogenic Amine Formation

“…Removal of the alpha-carboxyl group from amino acid leads to the corresponding biogenic amine 3 . Biogenic amines are undesirable in all foods and beverages and when absorbed at relatively high concentrations, they can induce headaches, respiratory distress, heart palpitations, hyper or hypotension, and several allergenic disorders.…”

Biogenic amines in red wine: The impact of technological processing of grape and wine / BIOGENI AMINI V RDEČEM VINU: VPLIV TEHNOLOŠKE PREDELAVE GROZDJA IN VINA

“…The main BA associated with wine are putrescine, histamine, tyramine and cadaverine (Čuš et al, 2011; 2013), followed by phenylethylamine, spermidine, spermine, agmatine and tryptamine (Smit, 2008). Histamine, tyramine and especially putrescine were found in some wines by Buňka et al (2012) and by Čuš et al (2011; 2013), while the white wines showed lower content of BA in comparison to the red wines (Table 1) (Bodmer et al, 1999). Table 1.…”

“…Table 1. : Comparison of biogenic amines concentration (mg l -1 ) in red and white wine (Bodmer et al, 1999).…”

Histamine in Foods: Its Safety and Human Health Implications

“…Activity of foodborne decarboxylases and unwanted microbial activity must be suppressed, while fermentation is performed under strict control by selected, decarboxylase negative starter cultures. Finally, the whole production process should be embedded in a specific quality control procedure and quality management system, including analytical control at critical points (Hungerford et al, 1997;Bodmer et al, 1999).…”