Purity, explained
Pure tahini is one thing: sesame. No oils, no fillers, no shortcuts. But not every jar on the shelf plays by that rule — and most people never find out what's been added, or left in, until something tastes off or an allergy flares.
We're a family who didn't just want to make tahini we trust. With a background in chemistry behind us, we wanted to be able to prove it. So here's an honest look at how tahini gets cut, why it matters, and exactly how we keep ours clean.
The pure standard is simple: 100% sesame seeds. Anything beyond that is someone's way of making it cheaper.
The shortcuts
Cheap starches get blended in to bulk up a jar and stretch the sesame further. It quietly changes the texture, the flavour, and the nutrition — and if the filler is wheat starch, it drags gluten into something that should never contain any.
Ours: one ingredient. Just sesame — nothing to stretch it with.
How it's caught: starch detection tests and microscopy.
Adding a cheaper oil makes tahini pour more easily, look glossier and froth up nicely — and costs the maker far less than sesame. The trade-off is that you're no longer buying pure sesame; you're buying soybean, sunflower, canola or palm oil with some tahini in it.
Ours: no added oil, ever. The only oil in our jar is the oil that's naturally inside the seed — which is exactly why it separates and needs a stir. That separation is the honest sign you're holding the real thing.
How it's caught: oil profiling (fatty-acid analysis).
This is the one we take most seriously. Peanuts or peanut paste are sometimes added to add weight and change texture — and for anyone with a peanut allergy, that's not a quality issue, it's a danger.
Ours: there are no peanuts in our building. Our facility is purpose-built for tahini alone, so there's nothing to add and nothing to cross-contaminate. That's why you'll never see "may contain peanuts" on our label.
How it's caught: allergen testing (ELISA, PCR) and protein analysis.
Sometimes the sesame itself is the shortcut — old stock, lower grades, or a quietly mixed-in cheaper seed. It still looks like tahini, but the taste, freshness, nutrition and authenticity all slip.
Ours: premium Humera white sesame, graded at 99.98% purity and traceable to its source — fresh-milled in small batches so your jar is always young.
How it's caught: microscopy, DNA analysis, fatty-acid profiling and mineral analysis.
When the base product isn't good enough, colour and flavour can be faked to imitate the look and taste of premium tahini.
Ours: nothing is added to dress it up. The colour and the deep, roasted flavour come from one place — the seed and the roast.
How it's caught: colour analysis, spectrophotometry and GC-MS flavour analysis.
Cross-contact
Even tahini that's never been adulterated can still carry a hidden risk: cross-contact. When a facility runs multiple ingredients across shared equipment, traces of gluten, tree nuts, peanuts, soy or milk can end up in the jar — which is why so many labels carry a cautious "may contain".
Our answer was to remove the question entirely. Nothing else is handled where our tahini is made. Wherever you shop, though, the habit is a good one: always read the label and the allergen statement.
The science
You don't have to take any of this on faith — purity is measurable. These are the methods labs actually use to confirm what's in a jar, and the same standards we hold ours to:
Together, they confirm authenticity, expose anything hidden, and protect the person at the end of the spoon.
Ours, or anyone else's — we're always happy to talk. Questions about purity, ingredients, allergens or how tahini is tested? Send us a note, and someone who actually knows the science will write back.
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