Papa Murphy's Pineapple

Papa Murphy's Pineapple topping rates high on this index. Pineapple is one of the classic histamine liberators, and packing it in a can with syrup does not change that at all.

Why papa murphy's pineapple is rated high

Pineapple trips people up because it is fruit, it tastes fresh, and there is nothing aged or cured about it. The published topping is exactly what you would expect: canned pineapple, water, sugar and citric acid. The rating has nothing to do with histamine sitting in the can. Pineapple belongs to the small group of foods known as histamine liberators, which means it can prompt your body to release histamine it was already storing. The symptoms come from your own supply going where it should not, which is why there is nothing to rinse off, cook out or drain away. That is also why fresh and canned end up in the same place: the liberator effect travels with the fruit itself, not with how it was packed.

What changes your risk

• The fruit is the entire reason — canned pineapple is the single component the scoring flagged. The water, sugar and citric acid packing it are not moving the level in either direction.
• Canning neither helps nor hurts — a properly sealed can is not building histamine as it sits, but it is not stripping the liberator effect out of the pineapple either.
• Baking it on the pizza does not fix it — oven heat kills bacteria, but a liberator does not work by carrying histamine, so there is nothing there for heat to destroy.
• Time on the counter is not the driver — pineapple in syrup has almost no protein in it, and histamine buildup needs protein for bacteria to act on. How long it waits is a food safety question rather than a histamine one.
• What else goes on the pizza — for people who react to liberators, it is usually several of them in one meal that shows up as symptoms rather than any single topping in isolation.

Lower-histamine alternatives

At Papa Murphy's the toppings that rate lower on this index are Chicken, Onion Mix and Zesty Herb Blend. Chicken is the lower rated protein, and Onion Mix and Zesty Herb Blend are the lower rated flavor additions. There is no lower rated fruit topping at this chain, so if it is the sweet and tangy note you are after, the honest answer is that there is not a substitute for it on this menu.

How to lower the risk

Papa Murphy's is a build your own counter, so the pineapple is a topping you choose rather than something already baked into a fixed recipe. If pineapple is a known trigger for you, the straightforward step is to build the pizza from the lower rated toppings, which here are Chicken, Onion Mix and Zesty Herb Blend. When someone else in the household wants pineapple, ordering it as its own pizza rather than as one half means the fruit and its syrup are not sitting against the slices you are eating.

Common questions

Is canned pineapple worse than fresh for histamine intolerance?

Neither is the lower option. The rating comes from pineapple being a liberator, and that does not change with canning, so canned and fresh both land high here.

Why is pineapple high if it does not contain much histamine?

Because it is a liberator. It can prompt your body to release histamine it was already storing, and the symptoms feel the same as eating a high histamine food.

Does baking the pineapple on a pizza make it okay?

No. Baking does not remove the liberator effect, and heat does not clear histamine your own body has released.

Is the citric acid in the topping the problem?

The citric acid here is an added acidifier in the packing liquid, not the reason for the rating. The pineapple itself is.