Grade and Store Sesame, Step by Step

Five checks in order: inspect appearance, check for impurities, measure oil content against the 40% floor, sort by size and colour, then dry and store at 6% moisture or less.

Step one is appearance. Inspect the sample for discolouration, broken seed and foreign material before any instrument is used; visual defects disqualify a lot faster than a borderline oil reading.

Step two is impurities. Check the lot for stems, husks and other seed; impurities distort both the oil measurement and the weight basis the 40% floor is applied to.

Step three is the oil test. Measure oil content against the 40% floor — quality grading requires oil content of at least 40%. Because oil content rises with a longer photoperiod, two lots from different growing conditions can land on either side of this threshold, so the test is run on the actual lot, not on an origin average.

Step four is sorting, by size and then by colour. Sorting by size and colour is part of the grading requirement itself, not a cosmetic step; an unsorted lot cannot claim graded status even when oil and moisture are within limits.

Step five is drying and storage. Dry the lot and store it at 6% moisture or less. The two named failure modes are moist seed storage — moisture above 6% at intake — and unsorted lots shipped as graded; both are caught at intake with a moisture meter and a sample tray.

• Inspect appearance
• Check for impurities
• Measure oil content against the 40% floor
• Sort by size and colour
• Dry and store at 6% moisture or less

Further reading

• Sesame per 100 Grams
• Where Sesame Comes From