Allergen guide

Sesame in recipes — how Frittu checks and excludes it

Sesame is one of the major food allergens. It appears not just as seeds sprinkled on bread or buns but as an ingredient in tahini, hummus, halva, gingelly oil, and a range of East Asian and South Asian cooking preparations. This page explains what Frittu's system does, specifically, when sesame is listed as an excluded ingredient in a user's profile.

Sesame in everyday cooking

Sesame seeds are one of the oldest cultivated oilseed crops. They are pressed into oil — used as a finishing oil across East and Southeast Asian cooking — and ground into pastes used throughout Middle Eastern, North African, and East Asian cuisine. The seeds themselves appear on burger buns, bagels, and flatbreads; as a coating for fried foods; and as a garnish in salads and stir-fries.

The allergen risk from sesame extends well beyond whole seeds. Tahini, the ground sesame paste used in hummus, baba ghanoush, and halva, is a concentrated sesame product. Sesame oil retains the allergen even after pressing. In East Asian cooking, sesame paste (the Chinese version of tahini, made from toasted seeds) is used in cold noodle sauces and hot pot dipping bases. In South Asian cooking, sesame appears under the Hindi and Urdu name “til,” and in South Indian cooking, the oil is called gingelly oil. In some American Southern recipes and older English-language cookbooks, sesame seeds are called benne seeds.

This regional and culinary diversity in naming means a recipe can contain sesame without the word “sesame” appearing anywhere in the ingredient list.

How Frittu's allergen check works

When your profile lists sesame as an excluded ingredient, Frittu applies a two-layer check to every recipe it generates.

Layer 1 — prompt-side instruction.Before sending a generation request to Claude, Frittu builds an exclusion list from your allergen profile. For sesame, that list includes not just “sesame” but also the aliases most likely to appear in a recipe: tahini, sesame oil, sesame paste, hummus, halva, halvah, gingelly, benne, and til. Claude receives these as a hard exclusion instruction and is directed to build the recipe without them.

Layer 2 — deterministic post-generation scan.After the recipe is returned, Frittu runs a server-side function that checks every ingredient name against a coded keyword list for sesame. Short regional names like “til” are matched as whole words so they do not produce false matches on longer words that contain the same letters. If any ingredient name matches a sesame keyword, the recipe is rejected and Frittu attempts to generate an alternative before showing you a result.

What this check does not cover. The check operates on ingredient names as generated. It does not cover sesame residue from shared equipment, cross-contamination from sesame oil used on the same cooking surface, or ingredients a user adds after receiving the recipe. If you are preparing food for someone with a significant sesame allergy, kitchen cross-contamination controls remain your responsibility.

Hidden sources of sesame in cooking

Common hidden sources of sesame in cooking include the following — ingredients that contain sesame but may appear in a recipe without the word “sesame” being present.

Tahini — Ground sesame paste; the primary sesame ingredient in Middle Eastern cooking. Used in hummus, baba ghanoush, halva, and as a sauce base for salads, grain bowls, and roasted vegetables. Often present in a recipe even when the dish is not obviously sesame-forward.

Hummus — A blended dip made from chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, and garlic. Tahini is a core ingredient, but when a recipe calls for “hummus” as an ingredient rather than making it from scratch, the word “tahini” may not appear in the ingredient list at all. The keyword “hummus” is included in Frittu's sesame list to catch this shorthand.

Sesame oil — Pressed from sesame seeds; used as a finishing oil in East and Southeast Asian cooking. Distinct from the high-heat cooking oils used in the same cuisines — sesame oil is added at the end of cooking or used as a dressing. It retains sesame allergen proteins even after pressing.

Sesame paste — The Chinese equivalent of tahini; typically made from toasted sesame seeds and slightly thicker and darker than Middle Eastern tahini. Used in dan dan noodles, cold sesame sauce for noodles and vegetables, and some hot pot dipping sauces. A recipe may call for sesame paste by name without listing sesame seeds separately.

Halva / halvah — A confection made primarily from tahini and sugar, often with additions of pistachios, cocoa, or vanilla. Common in Middle Eastern, North African, and Eastern European cooking. The allergen derives from the tahini base, which is present in virtually all halva recipes.

Gingelly (oil) — The South Indian name for sesame oil, common in Tamil Nadu and Kerala cuisine. Recipes from these traditions frequently list “gingelly oil” as the cooking fat rather than “sesame oil.” Both terms refer to the same pressed sesame product — and both are checked.

Benne — An archaic or regional name for sesame, still in use in some American Southern recipes. Benne wafers (thin sesame seed cookies) and benne seeds on bread are the most common appearances. The term derives from the West African word for sesame, reflecting the crop's introduction to the American South via the transatlantic slave trade.

Til / til seeds — The Hindi and Urdu word for sesame. Appears in North Indian and Pakistani recipes for sweets (til chikki, til ladoo), flatbreads, and chutneys. Frittu's check matches “til” as a standalone ingredient word so that unrelated words containing the same letters — such as “lentils” or “until” — are not flagged.

Frequently asked questions

How does Frittu's system check for sesame in a generated recipe?

Frittu uses a two-layer process. First, before generating a recipe, Claude is given an exclusion list that includes sesame and its aliases — tahini, sesame oil, sesame paste, hummus, halva, halvah, gingelly, benne, and til. Claude is instructed to build the recipe without those ingredients. After the recipe is returned, a server-side function checks every ingredient name against a coded keyword list for sesame. Any ingredient name that matches a sesame keyword causes the recipe to be rejected and the generation retried automatically before the recipe is shown.

Does hummus trigger the sesame check?

Yes. Most hummus is made with tahini as a core ingredient. When a recipe lists "hummus" as an ingredient, tahini may not appear separately in the ingredient list — the recipe just says hummus. The keyword "hummus" is included directly in Frittu's sesame keyword list so that the check catches this shorthand. A recipe calling for hummus is treated the same as one explicitly calling for tahini: the recipe is rejected and regenerated.

How does Frittu check for "til" without flagging unrelated words like lentils?

"Til" is the Hindi and Urdu word for sesame, appearing in North Indian and Pakistani recipes for sweets such as til chikki and til ladoo, as well as in some flatbreads and chutneys. The challenge is that the same letters appear inside many common English words — lentils, until, tortilla, and others. Frittu's check matches short ingredient names like "til" as whole words rather than as fragments, so lentils and similar words are not flagged. Only a recipe that uses "til" as a standalone ingredient term triggers the sesame check.

What is gingelly oil and why is it in the sesame keyword list?

"Gingelly" is the common name for sesame oil in South Indian cooking, particularly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala cuisine. Recipes from these traditions frequently list "gingelly oil" as an ingredient rather than "sesame oil." The two terms refer to the same pressed sesame product. Both "gingelly oil" and the standalone word "gingelly" are included in Frittu's sesame keyword list so that South Indian recipe generation is subject to the same check as any other cuisine that uses sesame oil.

What happens when a generated recipe triggers the sesame check?

The recipe is rejected before it is saved or shown to the user. Frittu attempts to generate an alternative; if none passes the check, no recipe is returned for that slot.

A note on coverage. Frittu's sesame check operates on the ingredient names that appear in a generated recipe. It does not cover cross-contamination that could occur during home or restaurant preparation — shared equipment, oils used on the same surface, or unlabelled sesame in a pre-made product a user adds to the dish. The check describes the mechanism Frittu applies to recipe generation; it does not describe the entire chain of sesame exposure that may be relevant to any individual's situation.

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