Bacteria form biogenic amines - and we get migraine

The Danish Migraine Association participated in October 2001 in a symposium with the leading scientists in biogenic amines - those chemicals that cause up to 5% of all adults and children food migraine.

The researchers agreed that the two biogenic amines tyramine and phenylethylamine can only be formed by bacteria that decompose amino acids in our food. Good hygiene in the food industry and kitchen is the best way to avoid food migraine.

Many of our foods are produced with the assistance of bacteria. All the products we refer to as fermented or matured have been through a bacterial treatment. But also many products we usually wouldn't think of as matured are the result of a bacterial fermentation. Bacteria give us the pleasant tastes or have been present at an earlier stage during the production, and may later be removed in the production process; but their products, tyramine (TYR) and phenylethylamine (PEA) remain in our food.

These two compounds are not decomposed if we boil our food (regardless of how long time we boil). So generally we cannot remove them if they are first formed in our food.

The bacteria that form the two compounds are primarily lactic bacteria (Lactobacillus and similar species, often used in industrially produced food) and faecal bacteria (Enterococcus). They are found in our digestive tract, but we do not know much about how their life in our intestines influence us. This may be a topic for further research.

Luckily the industry has understood the problem, and some products are now produced with only bacterial strains that do not produce tyramine, phenylethylamine or histamine (also a bacterial product).

Still we have no ways of demanding that food should be labelled so that we can see if the hygiene and the bacterial cultures used are safe and free of TYR and PEA.

The only sure way of avoiding TYR and PEA is to avoid food that may contain these tow compounds - by using only fresh ingredients, keep then cool, and avoiding all food that has been produced with the assistance of bacteria. This is not easy in our modern society. Really many of the items in the super market contains one or more ingredients that has been produced with the aid of bacteria. Soy protein and citrus concentrate are found is a lot of industrially produced food, as soy protein is cheap and provides a good consistency, and citrus concentrate is a fine antioxidant and gives a fresh taste.

We can only plead with the food industry to use only 'migraine friendly' bacteria, and push for a declaration of the bacteria, so that strains that do not form TYR and PEA will be the norm in the future.