Does Tahini Sauce Need To Be Refrigerated? Helpful Tips

Tahini sauce

Tahini is a condiment that goes into making Hummus, Baba Ghanoush, and other various middle eastern recipes. It serves as a perfect dressing for wraps and salads.

Made with the goodness of sesame seed paste and olive oil, the frequently asked question is regarding its quality. Does tahini go bad? Do we need to refrigerate it? How to properly store it to increase its shelf life? What are the signs of it turning bad? All answered here in this article. 

Tahini sauce need not be refrigerated if stored in a cool and dark place. Even after opening the jar, you can keep it lying in the pantry for a long time at room temperature.

Refrigerating the tahini sauce helps it retain its quality for a longer period. However, refrigerating has its own disadvantages too, by making its consistency of a paste rather than of a sauce and thus, difficult to be spread.

You may have to dilute the so-formed paste to achieve the sauce consistency. By storing it outside, you might notice that the sesame oil separates from the solids. Do not hesitate to eat that sauce as it is absolutely normal for it to separate that way.

All you need is a blender or a spoon. Whisk it until homogenous and your tahini is good to go. Tahini sauce can actually last longer than the date of expiration mentioned on the package. 

Does tahini sauce go bad?

No, tahini sauce generally does not go bad in terms of consumer safety. There can be a one-in-a-million chance when your tahini gets a bacterial or fungal mold. Generally, it is resistant to the growth of microbes because of the presence of oil.

Another possibility for the tahini sauce to go bad is that it may turn rancid. It does not reduce the consumption safety of tahini but may degrade the quality by giving out a foul smell and bad flavor.

If you want to avoid eating the rancid tahini sauce, always abide by the best before date on your tahini’s pack. You can go up to 1 month past the best before consuming your tahini but after that, chances are higher for your condiment to go rancid and degrade in terms of quality.

Store-bought tahini has added preservatives to increase its shelf life as compared to homemade tahini sauces.

Another reason your tahini sauce is not consumable can be the hardening of your sauce due to the evaporation of moisture content. To prevent that, it is advised to keep the tahini in an airtight container.

Tahini sauce can actually never go bad in terms of safety. Just like any nut butter, tahini just degrades in relative quality with time. 

How long does tahini sauce last?

Although the best-before-date of tahini sauce is different for different manufacturers, a rough estimate suggests that one should consume opened tahini when left in the pantry within 4-6 months. If refrigerated, tahini sauce lasts for 6-12 months.

If your tahini is unopened and sealed, it usually lasts for 6 months after the “best before date” in the pantry and 12 months after the best before the date when stored in the refrigerator.

The best advice is to check the best before date on your pack and consume accordingly. It is advised to discard the sauce if you see any mold growth, which has the rarest chance to occur.