Sesame allergen labelling: what the EU, US, Canada, Australia, Japan and China require.

Where is sesame a mandatory allergen?

In the European Union, the United States, Canada, and Australia and New Zealand, a food that contains sesame must say so on the label. The details of wording and timing differ, and the table gives each one as the instrument states it.

What changed in the United States in 2023?

The FASTER Act, approved on 23 April 2021, amended the US Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to add sesame to the list of major food allergens, alongside the eight already there. It applies to food introduced into interstate commerce on or after 1 January 2023. The FDA notes that food products already on their way to or on store shelves before 2023 did not have to be removed from the market.

One consequence is worth knowing if you sell into US food manufacturing. The FDA has recorded that some manufacturers responded by intentionally adding sesame to products that did not previously contain it, and labelling it. The FDA's position is that this keeps them compliant but is a practice with an outcome it does not support.

Does Japan require sesame on the label?

No. Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency divides allergen labelling into nine mandatory "specified ingredients" and twenty recommended items "equivalent to specified ingredients". Sesame is in the recommended group. The agency's April 2026 handbook says the recommended scope covers white, black and golden sesame, and processed forms including sesame oil, sesame paste and ground sesame.

A Japanese buyer's own specification may still ask for it. But a page that tells you Japanese law mandates it is wrong.

What does China's GB 7718-2025 say about sesame?

For China's revised general labelling standard for prepackaged food, GB 7718-2025, the National Health Commission's own question-and-answer on the standard names sesame and its products among the substances for which an allergen prompt may be labelled voluntarily. It is not a mandatory declaration.

What does this mean for a buyer of bulk sesame seed?

The declaration appears on the finished food's label, but the rules shape what a food manufacturer asks its supplier for, and three points follow.

• —A prepackaged food containing sesame must declare it in the EU, US, Canada and Australia–New Zealand, whatever the grade of seed, hulled or natural.
• —The rules name the allergen, not the grade. Canada and Australia–New Zealand prescribe the word to use ("sesame" in both, with "sesame seed" or "sesame seeds" also allowed in Canada), which matters when a label is translated for export.
• —Cross-contact is treated differently from ingredients. Canada's rule, for example, does not apply to a food allergen present only as a result of cross-contamination. If your plant handles sesame beside allergen-free lines, the rule that governs you is your destination's, and it is worth reading directly.

How current is this page?

Each row was read from the regulator's own text on 28 September 2026: EUR-Lex for the EU, the US Government Publishing Office and FDA for the United States, the Justice Laws website for Canada (current to 3 September 2026), the Federal Register of Legislation for Australia and New Zealand, the Consumer Affairs Agency's April 2026 handbook for Japan, and the National Health Commission for China. The Codex Alimentarius general labelling standard, South Korea and India are deliberately left out: we could not read their current texts, and we do not state what we have not read.