For quantitative determination of histamine in food, beverage and agricultural products.

• Fast and sensitive, convenient
• Use of 20 μl sample
• Linear detection range 0.0025 to 1 mM (0.3 to 111 ppm) histamine in 96-well plate assay
• High-throughput, "Add-mix-read" type assay
• Can be readily automated as a high-throughput 96-well plate assay for thousands of samples per day
• Method: OD565 nm

The procedure involves adding a single working reagent, and reading the absorbance after 30 minutes. Room temperature assay. No 37 °C heater is needed. Histamine (C₅H₉N₃) is a biogenic amine naturally present in many foods and body cells in amounts without toxicological significance. It is also a contaminant that mostly found in the Scombridae family fishes such as tuna and mackerel or other seafood products when improperly handled or stored. The consumption of foods containing high level of histamine may lead to an allergy-like food poisoning known as scombroid poisoning.

Histamine assay kit is based on histamine dehydrogenase catalyzed oxidation of histamine in which the formed electron mediator reduces a formazan (MTT) reagent. The intensity of product color, measured at 565 nm is directly proportional to histamine concentration in the sample. Samples: Food, beverage and agricultural products.