Is the biogenic amine content of italian and romanian craft beers a healthy issue for consumers?

Beer is a fermented alcoholic beverage widely consumed around the world. In recent years, the demand for craft beer consumption has shown an upward trend, due to its uniqueness, originality and authentic taste. Since craft beers are usually non-filtered and unpasteurized, they could represent a safety hazard for consumers due to the accumulation of biogenic amines (BAs). These molecules are produced by the decarboxylation of free amino acids, through the action of microbial decarboxylase enzymes. The consequences on consumers’ health could be mild or severe, depending on their susceptibility and many other factors (drugs assumption, immune deficiencies etc.). The alcoholic content (higher in craft than in conventional beers) increases the amine toxicity due to its ability to inhibit monoamine oxidases (MAO), which normally detoxify BAs. The present work aimed to evaluate the BAs content in different brewery style craft beers from the Italian and Romanian markets, to ascertain the existence of a real health issue for consumers. The results showed that the tryptamine, tyramine and putrescine were the main BAs detected. The total BAs content ranged between 4.1 and 17.9 mg/L, with dark and lager beers displaying the highest content for Italian and Romanian samples, respectively. These concentrations do not involve any risk to healthy consumers, as long as a moderate consumption of beer is made. Special attention should be paid if alcohols and MAO inhibitors are ingested simultaneously. The future perspective is to identify and modify some critical steps of brewing technology, to obtain a less contaminated drink.