The Safety Issues With Tyramine

Tyramine is the most commonly found in biogenic amine in food. It is produced by microorganisms in a range of foods by the decarboxylation of the amino-acid tyrosine. It  is one of the most problematic compounds in food manufacture and its levels need to be controlled in a manner similar to histamine (Naila et al., 2010; Linares et al., 2013).

Sources Of Tyramine

Commonly found in fermented foods like cheese, fish sauces, soybean sauce, some wines and even beer  (Alvarez & Moreno‐Arribas, 2014).

Symptoms Of Tyramine Poisoning

Tyramine was first identified in the 1960s as the agent causing the ‘cheese effect’ which was discovered by a British scientist trying to understand why his wife suffered severe headaches and migraines when she ate cheese even though she was on medication which inhibited the enzyme monoamine oxidase (Sathyanarayana Rao et al., 2009). Tyramine causes neurological disorders and headaches as well as hypertension and respiratory problems in those who consume foods high in this compound (Asatoor et al., 1963; Davies, 1963).

Regulatory Aspects

Tyramine is a biological hazard in foods and beverages according to both the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (EFSA 2011; FAO 2014). However, tyramine is not present in very fresh foods.  It occurs and increases during storage of many foods due to microbial decarboxylation of tyrosine amino acid.

Measurement

Traditionally, high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultraviolet (UV) or florescence (FL) detector method was used to determine tyramine in different food products (Önal et al., 2013).

References

Alvarez, M.A. & Moreno‐Arribas, V. (2014). The problem of biogenic amines in fermented foods and the use of potential biogenic amine‐degrading microorganisms as a solution. Trends in Food Science and Technology, 39, pp. 146–155 (Article).

Asatoor, A.M., Levi, A.J. & Milne, M.D.(1963). Tranylcypromine and cheese. Lancet, 2, pp. 733–734 (Article).

Davies, E.B. (1963). Tranylcypromine and cheese. Lancet, 2, pp. 691–692 (Article).

EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (2011). Scientific opinion on risk based control of biogenic amine formation in fermented foods. EFSA Journal, 9, 2393. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2011.2393

FAO (2014). Assessment and management of seafood safety and quality: Current practices and emerging issues. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper, p. 574.

Linares, D.M., del Rio, B., Ladero, V. et al. (2013). The putrescine biosynthesis pathway in Lactococcus lactis is transcriptionally regulated by carbon catabolic repression, mediated by CcpA. International Journal of Food Microbiology, 165, 43–50 (Article). 

Naila, A., Flint, S., Fletcher, G., Bremer, P.& Meerdink, G. (2010). Control of biogenic amines in food existing and emerging approaches. Journal of Food Science, 5, R139–R150. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-3841.2010.01774.x

Önal, A., Tekkeli, S.E.K. & Önal, C. (2013). A review of the liquid chromatographic methods for the determination of biogenic amines in foods. Food Chemistry, 138, pp. 509–515. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2012.10.056

Sathyanarayana Rao, T.S., Vikram, K. & Yeragani, V.K. (2009). Hypertensive crisis and cheese. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 51, pp. 65–66. http://www.indianjpsychiatry.org/text.asp?2009/51/1/65/44910