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Public Health Significance of Amines in Cheese¹

Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis 97331

ABSTRACT

Research designed to identify factors which may contribute to elevated biogenic amines (e.g., histamine, tryptamine, tyramine) in cheese is described. Free tyrosine and histidine in market cheese ranged from 6 to 29 and 1.5 to 12 mg/100 g. These concentrations of substrate would provide nontoxic quantities of corresponding amines, indicating that cheese proteolysis is important when toxic amounts occur. Pyridoxal phosphate concentration in 15 cheeses ranged from 42 to 215 µg/100 g, which appears to be sufficient to saturate amino acid decarboxylases required for amine production. Commercial preparations and cheese isolates of Propronibacterium species were tested for carbon dioxide production from histidine, tryptophan, and tyrosine in the presence and absence of pyriodoxal-5-phosphate. In the presence of cofactor, maximums were 10.9, 2.9, and 12.7 µl of carbon dioxide per h/mg cell dry weight. Over 150 isolates from 15 cheeses were tested for amine producing potential by measuring carbon dioxide production from histidine, tryptophan, and tyrosine; isolates were most active on tyrosine, producing as much as 26 µl of carbon dioxide per h/mg cell dry weight. Cheese slurries also were tested for carbon dioxide production from carboxyl carbon-14 labeled amino acids. Cheese isolates producing amines were tentatively identified as strains of Streptococcus faecium, Streptococcus mitis, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus plantarum, and streptococci of the viridans group.

¹ Technical paper No. 5363, Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station.

² DelMonte Foods Research Center, 205 N. Wiget Lane, Walnut Creek, CA 94598.