Sesame Paste
Sesame Paste is the ground mass of sesame seeds, produced by milling hulled or unhulled seed until the cell structure breaks down and the seed oil forms a continuous phase carrying the finely divided solids.
Two distinct products travel under the name. Tahini is made from hulled seed that is dried or lightly toasted, and it is pale, mild and slightly bitter. Chinese sesame paste, zhi ma jiang, is made from deeply roasted seed, usually unhulled or partly hulled, and is dark brown with a strong toasted aroma. Both carry roughly 50 to 60 per cent oil, around 20 per cent protein and one to two per cent moisture, with the oil rich in oleic and linoleic acids and stabilised naturally by sesamol and sesamolin, which give sesame products unusually good oxidative stability for an unsaturated oil.
The traded form is a thick paste that separates into an oil layer and a solid layer on standing, since traditional grades carry no stabiliser and are stirred before use. Water activity is low, so the paste keeps without preservatives. Adding water causes it to seize and thicken sharply before it thins again with further dilution, a behaviour that decides how it is handled in sauce and dressing manufacture.
We source bulk Sesame Paste from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Shandong. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
Please send the grade you need, the volume and your destination port, and we will come back with a solution and a price.
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- Function
- Bakery ingredient
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Homogeneous paste after stirring, oil separation acceptable on standing |
| Colour | Ivory to dark brown per roast grade, or grey black for black sesame |
| Flavour and odour | Characteristic toasted sesame, no burnt, rancid or musty note |
| Sesame content | 100% for pure grade, declared percentage for blends |
| Total fat | 50.0 to 60.0% |
| Protein | Not less than 18.0% |
| Moisture | Not more than 2.0% |
| Ash | Not more than 5.0% |
| Water activity | Not more than 0.50 |
| Particle size, D90 | Not more than 60 micrometres |
| Peroxide value | Not more than 3.0 meq O2/kg fat |
| Acid value | Not more than 4.0 mg KOH/g fat |
| Lead | Not more than 0.2 mg/kg |
| Total plate count | Not more than 10000 cfu/g |
| Yeast and mould | Not more than 100 cfu/g |
| E. coli | Absent in 1 g |
| Salmonella | Absent in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
The main grades are hulled tahini, unhulled or wholeseed paste, and roasted Chinese style paste, distinguished by roast depth and by whether the seed coat is present. Hulled paste is lighter in colour, lower in calcium and oxalate, and less bitter; unhulled paste is darker, coarser and stronger in flavour. Roast level within each is specified by colour reading and is the single biggest driver of aroma.
Beyond that, buyers specify fineness, quoted as a maximum particle size, and whether the paste is stabilised against oil separation. Blends in which sesame is extended with peanut paste are widely traded in the Chinese market for hotpot and noodle sauces and are sold on declared sesame content. Sweetened bakery grades carrying sugar and oil, and black sesame paste made from black seed for colour and for use in Chinese desserts, are sold as separate lines.
Applications
- Filling for Chinese pastries, tangyuan, steamed buns and moon cakes, usually as a sweetened black or white sesame grade
- Base for hummus, halva and Middle Eastern dips and sweets
- Sauce base for noodles, hotpot dipping sauce and cold dressed dishes in Chinese food service
- Flavour and body in salad dressings and emulsified sauces, where the seed protein assists emulsion stability
- Sesame flavour phase in bread, biscuits and crackers, blended into the dough
- Ripple and flavour base in ice cream and frozen desserts, particularly black sesame lines
- Base for sesame milk drinks and beverage powders after dilution and homogenisation
- Component of nougat, brittle and cereal bar binders
- Nut free alternative to nut butter in bakery and snack formulation, where tree nut allergen exclusion is required
Brands Using Sesame Paste
Widely-distributed consumer products that list Sesame Paste on the ingredient label.
- Soom FoodsChocolate Sesame Spread ↗The spread is built on tahini, the sesame paste listed first in its three-ingredient statement.Label verified 2026-08-31
- Soom FoodsOrganic Tahini 40 lb Bucket ↗Sold to kitchens and manufacturers as certified organic sesame paste made from sesame seeds and nothing else.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 Sesame Paste
Top Sesame Paste 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 food rather than a food additive and carries no E number. Codex maintains a standard for sesame seed oil within the standard for named vegetable oils, and general Codex standards for contaminants and for food additives apply to the paste in international trade. In the European Union any stabiliser or emulsifier added is authorised under Regulation 1333/2008 with its own E number, and in the United States such components are used under generally recognised as safe status or specific food additive regulations, with manufacture subject to the preventive controls rules for human food.
Sesame is now a declarable allergen in all major markets. It was added to the list of major food allergens in the United States by the FASTER Act, taking effect from the start of 2023, and it has long been a mandatory declaration in the European Union under the food information regulation. Salmonella is the principal microbiological hazard for this commodity because raw sesame seed has been implicated in international outbreaks, so the roast step is validated as a kill step and post roast handling is segregated. Buyers commonly also specify controls on pesticide residues, on ethylene oxide, which has triggered import alerts on sesame consignments, and on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons where the roast is deep.
Manufacturing Process
Sesame seed is cleaned by aspiration, sieving and destoning, then, for hulled grades, soaked or conditioned with water and passed through a dehuller that abrades the seed coat, after which the hulls are separated by flotation in brine or by air classification and the seed is washed and dried. Unhulled grades skip this step. The cleaned seed is roasted in a hot air or drum roaster to a controlled colour endpoint, which develops the pyrazine and furan aroma compounds that define the product and also serves as the pathogen kill step.
Roasted seed is cooled quickly, then ground, traditionally on a stone mill and industrially in a colloid or bead mill, in two or more passes with cooling between them so the paste does not overheat and take on a burnt note. Fineness is checked on a grindometer against the target. Where a stabilised grade is required, a hard vegetable fat fraction is melted in and crystallised through a scraped surface heat exchanger. The paste is deaerated under vacuum and filled warm into pails, drums or jars, often under nitrogen, then cooled and held so the solids settle evenly rather than compacting into a hard layer.
