Sesame for bakery is usually hulled or natural seed with a clean, even appearance and no off-smell. Hulled sesame for tahini needs very little remaining hull and a fresh, non-rancid oil. Peanuts for confectionery are bought for size, shape and appearance, while peanuts for peanut butter are bought for flavour after roasting, oil content and aflatoxin control.
The sections below take each use and name the specification points that matter most.
Sesame for bakery
A baker wants seed that toasts evenly and stays bright on a loaf or bun. Choose between natural and hulled by the finish you want. Natural seed is darker and a little more bitter. Hulled seed is whiter and sweeter.
Specify purity, a limit on foreign matter and broken seed, moisture, and a Salmonella test. Because sesame is an allergen in many markets, your labelling and cleaning steps must be reliable. The overall method is in how to write a specification for HPS peanuts or hulled sesame.
Hulled sesame for tahini
Tahini is mostly ground hulled sesame, and hull fragments make it bitter and dark. So the key figures are the percentage of unhulled seed, the colour, and the freshness of the oil, shown by free fatty acid and peroxide value. Sesame is about half oil by weight, so oil that has started to oxidise shows up in the paste immediately.
Hulling method affects flavour and colour. Compare the two methods in machine-hulled vs auto-dried hulled sesame, and roast a test batch from each sample before choosing a supplier.
Peanuts for confectionery
Confectioners use peanuts whole, split or blanched in bars, coatings and brittle. They want uniform size, a clean skin, low breakage and no mould or shrivelled kernels. The common export grade is hand-picked selected, explained in what HPS groundnut is, and the varieties are in the groundnut varieties Gujarat exports.
Roasting and coating lines are sensitive to moisture, so a peanut lot that is slightly damp will blister or stick. Ask the supplier how the nuts were dried and stored, and send a sample through your own process before you approve the lot.
Ask the supplier for the count per ounce or the size range, the percentage of damaged kernels, and an aflatoxin result per lot.
Peanuts for peanut butter
Peanut butter makers care less about shape and more about taste after roasting, oil content, moisture and the absence of rancid or mouldy nuts. Blanched and split nuts are often used because the skin is already off.
Aflatoxin is the decisive risk. The EU and several other markets set strict limits for peanuts, so confirm the current limit with your authority and have every lot tested before shipping. A supplier with optical sorting and a documented aflatoxin programme is a better choice than one with a slightly better headline grade.
Next step
We can pull samples from audited Gujarat processors, have them tested to your food-safety limits, and supervise loading so the shipped lot matches the approved sample. Book a free sourcing review with your recipe and the size or grade you use today.