Black Sesame Butter
Black sesame butter is a paste made by roasting and grinding black sesame seed, the dark-coated variety of Sesamum indicum. It is the black-seed counterpart of tahini and of ordinary sesame paste, and is distinguished from them by its colour, which comes from the pigmented seed coat, and by a deeper, more bitter roasted flavour.
The seed is about 50 to 55 percent oil and 18 to 20 percent protein, so grinding releases enough oil for the seed solids to disperse into a pourable paste without any added fat. The oil is high in linoleic acid but unusually stable for a polyunsaturated oil because sesame carries the lignans sesamin and sesamolin, which act as natural antioxidants; roasting converts part of that fraction into sesamol, which is more active still. Black grades are ground with the coat intact, since removing it would remove the colour, and the coat is also what carries most of the calcium, oxalate and bitterness.
The traded product is a dark grey to near black paste with a thick, slightly gritty body and a strong toasted aroma. It separates on standing, the free oil rising to the top, so it is stirred or recirculated before use and is often stabilised or blended with sugar for filling applications. It is low in water activity and shelf stable, ships in pails, drums and vacuum bags, and becomes freely pumpable when warmed.
We source bulk Black Sesame Butter from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Beijing. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
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- Function
- Bakery ingredient
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Uniform dark grey to black paste, free oil separation permitted |
| Odour and taste | Strong roasted sesame, free from rancid or scorched notes |
| Sesame content | 100% for single ingredient grade |
| Fat | 50.0% to 58.0% |
| Protein | 17.0% min |
| Moisture | 2.0% max |
| Water activity | 0.40 max |
| Ash | 5.0% max |
| Fineness | 85% below 60 microns for smooth grade |
| Peroxide value | 3.0 meq/kg max |
| Free fatty acid as oleic | 1.5% max |
| Lead | 0.2 mg/kg max |
| Total plate count | 10000 cfu/g max |
| Yeast and mould | 100 cfu/g max |
| E. coli | Absent in 1 g |
| Salmonella | Absent in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
Roast level is the main specification, running from light, which keeps the paste milder and slightly sweeter, to dark, which is what most Chinese and Japanese filling applications call for because the flavour has to survive sugar and a dough. Fineness is the second, expressed as the proportion of particles below a stated micron size; stone milled pastes are coarser and traditionally preferred for their texture, while colloid milled pastes are smoother and disperse more evenly into a batter or a beverage.
Composition varies according to intended use. Pure single ingredient paste is ground seed alone. Sweetened black sesame filling paste is compounded with sugar, oil and sometimes rice flour or starch to a firmer, mouldable consistency for use as a filling. Blends with white sesame are made to moderate the bitterness and the cost, and the proportion should be stated. Roasted and raw grades, hulled blends, and organic material are traded alongside, along with black sesame powder, which is a different product made by milling defatted or partly defatted seed.
Applications
- Fillings for glutinous rice balls and tangyuan, the largest single application
- Mooncake, bun and pastry fillings, usually in the sweetened compounded form
- Ice cream, gelato and frozen dessert bases, where the roasted flavour survives freezing
- Bakery swirls, spreads and filled breads
- Black sesame beverages, soups and instant powders, dispersed into hot liquid
- Dessert sauces and puddings in Chinese and Japanese formats
- Confectionery centres and coated snacks
- Savoury sauces and dressings, where the bitterness balances soy and vinegar
- Nutrition and supplement products formulated around sesame calcium and lignans
Brands Using Black Sesame Butter
Widely-distributed consumer products that list Black Sesame Butter on the ingredient label.
- Eden FoodsBlack Sesame Butter, Organic Roasted ↗The 16 oz jar lists a single ingredient, organic whole black sesame seeds, ground into a butter.Label verified 2026-08-31
- DastonyOrganic Toasted Black Sesame Seed Butter 8 oz ↗Stone ground from 100 percent certified organic black sesame seeds with no added oils, salt or sugar.Label verified 2026-08-31
Brand names, product names and logos are the property of their owners. They appear here as published evidence that the ingredient is used, taken from the brand's own label or website. Their appearance is not an endorsement, and it does not mean the brand buys from us or from any manufacturer listed on this site.
China Manufacturers of Black Sesame Butter
Top Black Sesame Butter manufacturers in China.
Company names and logos are the property of the manufacturers themselves. They are listed here because our own directory records them as producing this ingredient. A listing is not an endorsement by them, and we do not represent them or speak on their behalf.
Regulatory Status
Sesame paste is a single ingredient or simple compounded food with no additive number and no standard of identity. Its dominant regulatory feature is allergen status: sesame is a declared major food allergen in the United States, which brought it into the labelling and preventive control regime alongside the other major allergens, and it is a named allergen requiring emphasis in the ingredient list in the European Union. Any facility handling it must manage cross-contact accordingly.
Beyond allergen control, the product is manufactured under the general food safety requirements applying to low moisture foods, with roasting treated as the validated pathogen reduction step and environmental monitoring used to guard the post-roast area, since Salmonella in sesame seed and paste has been the subject of recurrent recalls and of import controls. In the European Union consignments of sesame seed from certain origins are subject to increased official controls at the border with sampling for Salmonella and, for some origins, for ethylene oxide residues, which is a practical sourcing constraint. Additives used in sweetened compounded grades must be authorised for the relevant food category in the destination market.
Manufacturing Process
Black sesame seed is received and cleaned in stages, since the seed is small and is harvested close to the ground: air aspiration removes chaff, screens remove oversize and undersize, destoners and gravity tables remove sand and stones, and magnets remove metal. The seed is then washed to lift remaining soil and dried back to a low moisture, because surface water would steam rather than roast the seed and would dull the flavour.
Roasting is done in a rotary or continuous hot air roaster, with the endpoint judged on colour and aroma rather than on time alone, since black seed gives no visual roast cue and is easy to burn. The seed is cooled rapidly in a forced air cooler to stop the reaction. Milling follows in two stages, a coarse break that ruptures the seed and releases the oil, then a stone mill or colloid mill that reduces the particles to the specified fineness, with the paste cooled between passes to keep the temperature down. Sweetened grades have sugar and oil metered in at this stage. The paste is deaerated under vacuum to remove entrained air, metal detected and filled, then cooled and held so that any added fat crystallises before dispatch.
