Histamine poisoning

Taylor SL, JE Stratton, JA Nordlee (1989) Histamine poisoning (scombroid fish poisoning) an allergy-like intoxication. Clin Toxicol 27 225-240. 

It has been known for some time that mice receiving injections of pertussis vaccine develop a very high sensitivity to histamine poisoning. In Table 16 are given the total deaths divided by the total number of mice injected with histamine at different levels for five different strains of mice.3 5 The most marked resistance is shown by the CF strain which has not been rendered materially susceptible to histamine by the pertussis vaccine. The LD50 for this treated strain is about 200 times that for the TF strain. It should be noted that there are intrastrain differences also. For example, in the BF strain, 2 animals out of 10 were killed with 0.125 mg. of histamine, whereas 5 out of 10 survived a dosage 64 times as high. This shows that for different individual mice within this strain differences in the amounts of histamine required to kill may be of the order of 100-fold. 

Histamine Poisoning in Pertussis Vaccine Treated Mice... 

Different people display individual patterns of susceptibility to biogenic amines in foods. Clinical signs of histamine poisoning are more severe in people taking medications which inhibit enzymes that normally detoxify histamine in the intestines. Symptoms may be gastrointestinal (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea), circulatory (hypotension), or cutaneous (rash, urticaria, palpitations, tingling. 

The role of saurine (implieated in histamine poisoning in Japan) as a compound able to act synergistically with histamine was reviewed by Arnold and Brown (1978), but it was later concluded that the compound in question was in fact histamine. 

The number of occurrences of histamine poisoning due to cheese is second only to that for fish (Ordonez et al., 1997 Stratton et al., 1991). The U.S. and the EC have set maximum limits for histamine in fish, but not for cheese. Spanjer... 

The first reported case of histamine poisoning from cheese was in 1967 and involved Gouda cheese (Doeglas et ah, 1964). There have been other reported cases involving Swiss (Sumner et ah, 1985), Cheshire (Uragoda and Lodha, 1979), Cheddar (Kahana and Todd, 1981), and Gruyere (Taylor, 1985). 

Biogenic amines are commonly found in fermented meats. Histamine poisoning has not been associated with this type of product, however histamine has been found at low levels in some fermented meats (Dierick et al., 1974 Taylor et al., 1978 Vidal et al., 1990 Shalaby, 1993 Maijala et al., 1993). The most common amine found in fermented meats is tyramine (Trevino et al., 1997 Eerola et al., 1998), which is found at higher concentrations than other amines. The toxic level of biogenic amines is 100 mg per 100 g of product (Arnold et al., 1978). Taylor et al. (1978) and Vandekerckhove (1977) found amounts of histamine up to 55 mg per 100 g, putrescine up to 40 mg per 100 g, cadaverine up to 5.6 mg per 100 g, tyramine up to 151 mg per 100 g, and p-phenylethylamine up to 6.1 mg per 100 g in dry sausage. Table 6.9 lists the... 

Also, K., lida, H., Nakayama, J. and Nakano, K. (1958). Histamine poisoning caused by certain marine fish products and the specific etiological agents. Chiba Daigaku Fuhai, Kenhyusho Hokoku 11, 1-6. 

Taylor, S.L. (1985). Histamine Poisoning Associated With Fish, Cheese, and Other Foods, World Health Organization, pp. 1-47. 

TABLE I. Number and Size of Outbreaks of Histamine Poisoning Occurring in Certain Countries from 1971-1980... 

Among the non-scombroid fish, mahi-mahi is the most common fish implicated in histamine poisoning in the U.S. Other non-scombroid fish that have been involved in outbreaks of histamine poisoning are sardines, pilchards, anchovies, herring, black marlin, and kahawai. 

Other Foods. Cheese has been implicated in several outbreaks of histamine poisoning in the U.S., Canada, France, and the Netherlands (5-8). Swiss cheese has been involved in all of the U.S. incidents and the French outbreak, while Cheddar and Gouda cheese were involved in the Canadian and Dutch outbreaks, respectively. Ham has allegedly been involved in an outbreak in France sauerkraut was implicated in one case in Germany (9) chicken was associated with an outbreak in Japan. 

Further experiments will be necessary with fish incriminated in histamine poisoning outbreaks to confirm the presence and identity of any potentiators of histamine toxicity. 

The threshold toxic dose for histamine in foods is not precisely known. Estimates are difficult to acquire from outbreaks of histamine poisoning because of the variability in histamine content in the fish (1,65). Simidu and Hibiki ( ) estimated the threshold toxic dose for histamine in fish to be approximately 60 mg/100 g, but their methods were not terribly precise. Based on experience acquired in the investigation of hundreds of scombroid poisoning incidents, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently established 50 mg/100 g as the hazard action level for histamine in tuna. They have not yet established regulatory limits for histamine in other fish or cheese. 

Tartazine (yellow pigment), on the other hand, may cause typical histamine poisoning symptoms, such as reduced blood pressure, increased heart rate, skin hyperemia, itching, nettle rash, and runny nasal discharge. The symptoms occur due to degranulation of a large number of mastocytes as a result of ion imbalance, such as tartazine chelates zinc ions. 

Uragoda CG. Histamine poisoning in tuberculous patients after ingestion of tuna fish. Am Rev Respir Dis 1980 121(l) 157-9. 

Muscarine-histamine poisoning occurs when mushrooms from the Inocybe or Clitocybe species such as I. geophylla, or C. dealbata (Sweat mushrooms) are eaten. 

Taylor, S. L., Kiefe, T. J., Windham, E. S., and Howell, J. F. (1982). Outbreak of histamine poisoning associated with consumption of Swiss cheese. J. Food Prot. 45, 455-457. 

The FDA proposed in 1995 that its compliance policy guide be revised on decomposition and histamine to (1) lower the histamine action level for decomposition to 50 ppm from 100 ppm (2) extend application of the new action level to raw and frozen tuna and mahi-mahi (3) eliminate the provision that findings of less than 200 ppm need to be confirmed by organoleptic testing (4) allow other species to be considered as decomposed when histamine levels reach, 50 to 500 ppm and (5) consider fish, other than tuna, implicated in histamine poisoning outbreaks as health hazards when histamine levels reach 500 ppm. It is anticipated that final action on this proposal will be announced after 1996 (Craven et ai, 1995 National Fisheries Institute, Inc., 1995). 

Taylor, S. L., Stratton, J. E., and J. A. Nordlee. (1989). Histamine poisoning (Scombroid fish poisoning) An Allergy-like intoxication. Clin. Toxicol. 27, 225-240. 

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