Histamine is produced from
histidine using
histidine decarboxylase of
histamine-producing bacteria. However, associated
histamine food poisoning demands microbiological controls. Furthermore, studies reported that
histamine production by
histamine-producing bacteria is affected by temperature. Therefore, to prevent
histamine food poisoning, it is desirable to store foods below 4℃. However, it is challenging to maintain the storage temperature of food substances in refrigerators constantly below 4℃. Thus, we investigated
histamine production capacity using seven
histamine-producing bacterial strains under storage at 10℃, a more reasonable cold storage condition. Subsequently, we examined the variation of
histamine production in
buffers, the correlation between bacterial density and
histamine production quantities, and the growth rate in broths. Results showed that similar levels of
histamine were produced in
buffers even after 5 days of storage under certain conditions in which
histamine-producing bacteria did not grow. Moreover, bacterial density was proportional to
histamine production, and the coefficient of determination was more than 0.97, and the bacterial density required to produce 200 μg/mL of
histamine during storage at 10℃ was calculated to be 4×107-4×108 CFU/mL. When the initial bacterial density was 102-103 CFU/mL, psychrophilic bacteria required 2 or 3 days and mesophilic bacteria required more than 4 days to grow above 107 CFU/mL. The above results suggest that understanding the capacity of
histamine-producing bacteria to produce
histamine and its growth rate in foods is important for the prevention of
histamine food poisoning.