New York Sesame Allergen Law 2025: What Food Businesses Need to Know
New York State sesame allergen labelling requirements took effect on November 12, 2025. Here is what New York food businesses need to know about compliance.
On November 12, 2025, New York State's sesame allergen labelling requirement came into full effect for food businesses operating within the state. This follows the federal FALCPA sesame addition under the FASTER Act (2023) and adds state-level enforcement for New York food businesses.
What Does the New York Sesame Law Require?
New York food businesses must declare sesame as a major allergen on:
- Packaged food products sold in New York State
- Restaurant menus and menu boards (for food containing sesame)
- Retail deli and foodservice operations
This requirement builds on the federal FASTER Act, which added sesame as the 9th major allergen under FALCPA from January 1, 2023. New York's state-level requirement ensures enforcement within New York independently of federal oversight.
Who Is Affected?
- New York food manufacturers and packagers
- New York restaurants, delis, cafes, and foodservice operators
- Online food retailers delivering to New York customers
- Manufacturers in other states whose products are sold in New York
What Must Be Declared?
Sesame and all sesame-containing ingredients: sesame oil, sesame flour, tahini, sesame seeds, benne seeds, and other sesame derivatives.
The "Contains: Sesame" statement must appear on packaging, or sesame must be declared within the ingredient list with common name or bolding where used.
Penalties for Non-Compliance
Violations of food allergen labelling laws in New York can result in civil penalties administered by the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets.
Manage sesame and all US allergen requirements with Allergen Matrix — the app built for FALCPA and New York compliance.
How to Audit Your Current Labelling for Sesame Compliance
The first step for any food business is a thorough ingredient audit across your entire product range. This means reviewing every ingredient you use, including compound ingredients and pre-mixed blends purchased from suppliers, since sesame can appear in unexpected places such as spice mixes, flavoured oils, marinades, and prepared sauces. Many businesses discover sesame exposure in their supply chain only after a structured review, which is why starting with your full supplier specifications list is strongly recommended rather than relying on memory or informal knowledge.
Once you have identified all sesame-containing ingredients, map each product against those findings and document every instance where sesame is present, either as a primary ingredient or as a component within a compound ingredient. Pay particular attention to ingredients listed under alternative names — benne seeds, gingelly oil, til, and sim sim are all sesame derivatives that must be captured. This mapping process becomes your compliance reference document, and it needs to be updated every time you change a supplier, reformulate a recipe, or introduce a new product line to your range.
After completing your audit, review your current labels and menu descriptions to confirm that sesame disclosure is clearly visible and correctly formatted according to both FALCPA requirements and New York State standards. If you are using a Shopify storefront to sell food products online to New York customers, your product descriptions must also reflect sesame declarations accurately. Tools like Allergen Matrix allow you to manage allergen data across your entire product catalogue and push correct information to your online store systematically, reducing the risk of human error during updates.
Cross-Contact and Precautionary Labelling Considerations
Cross-contact — the unintentional transfer of sesame into a product that does not contain sesame as an intentional ingredient — is a significant practical challenge for food businesses operating shared kitchens or production lines. Unlike cross-contamination in the microbiological sense, cross-contact with allergens cannot be eliminated through cooking, and even trace quantities of sesame can cause serious reactions in highly sensitive individuals. This means that any business sharing equipment, surfaces, or storage areas between sesame-containing and sesame-free products must assess their cross-contact risk carefully and honestly.
Precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) — statements such as "may contain sesame" or "produced in a facility that also handles sesame" — is not mandated by FALCPA or the New York law, but it is used widely by manufacturers to communicate genuine cross-contact risk to consumers. It is important to note that PAL should never be used as a substitute for proper allergen management, and its misuse as a blanket disclaimer on products that pose no real cross-contact risk is increasingly scrutinised by regulators and consumer advocacy groups. If your production genuinely presents cross-contact risk, document your cleaning procedures, equipment segregation, and staff training to demonstrate that you are managing the risk actively rather than relying solely on precautionary wording.
For online retailers and Shopify merchants selling food to New York customers, it is worth considering how cross-contact information is communicated on product pages as well as on physical packaging. Customers with sesame allergies are making purchasing decisions based on the information presented to them digitally before any product arrives at their door. Ensuring your online store reflects accurate, up-to-date allergen and cross-contact information — and that it updates consistently whenever your recipe or production process changes — is both a compliance consideration and a customer trust issue that directly affects your brand reputation.
Practical Steps for Restaurants, Delis, and Foodservice Operators
For restaurant and foodservice operators in New York, sesame disclosure on menus and menu boards is now a legal requirement rather than a best practice recommendation. This applies to printed menus, digital menu boards, online ordering platforms, and any other format through which menu information is communicated to customers before they place an order. If your menu includes dishes that contain sesame — whether in a dressing, sauce, garnish, or as a primary ingredient — those dishes must clearly indicate sesame as an allergen, and your front-of-house team must be trained to answer customer allergen queries accurately and confidently.
Reviewing and updating menus for sesame compliance requires collaboration between kitchen teams, management, and in some cases the suppliers providing prepared components or sauces. It is not enough to label only dishes where sesame seeds are visually apparent; hidden sesame in hummus, certain Asian-style sauces, baked goods, and dressings must also be declared. Many operators find it useful to build a complete allergen matrix for their menu — a reference document that maps every dish against every major allergen — so that front-of-house staff have a reliable, regularly updated source of truth rather than having to seek out kitchen staff every time a customer raises an allergen concern.
Staff training is a critical but often underestimated component of allergen compliance for foodservice businesses. Front-of-house employees need to understand not only which dishes contain sesame but also the distinction between sesame as an intentional ingredient and sesame present through cross-contact risk. They should know how to escalate queries appropriately, when to involve a manager or chef, and how to communicate honestly with customers about the limitations of your kitchen's ability to guarantee sesame-free preparation. Documenting your training programme and keeping records of staff completion is good practice and demonstrates due diligence if your compliance is ever reviewed.
Out-of-State Manufacturers Selling into New York
If your food manufacturing business is based outside New York State but your products are distributed, sold, or shipped to customers within New York, the state's sesame allergen labelling requirements still apply to you. This is an important distinction that some smaller manufacturers and specialty producers overlook, particularly when they are primarily focused on compliance with their home state's regulations or with federal FALCPA requirements alone. Selling through an e-commerce platform such as Shopify does not create an exemption — if the product is being delivered to a New York address, New York labelling standards are relevant.
For out-of-state businesses, the practical implication is that your packaging and product information must meet New York's requirements before products enter the state's distribution chain. If you supply a New York-based retailer or distributor, the responsibility for ensuring compliant labelling sits with you as the manufacturer, not with the retailer receiving the goods. Reviewing your labelling against New York's sesame requirements should be part of your standard process whenever you are expanding your distribution into new states, and it is worth seeking legal or regulatory advice if you are unsure whether your current labels meet the requirement.
Online food retailers using Shopify who ship nationally should ensure that their product pages and packaging are aligned. A customer in New York purchasing through your online store is entitled to the same allergen disclosures as a customer purchasing from a physical New York store. Using a structured allergen management tool helps ensure that the information displayed on your Shopify product pages matches the information on your physical packaging, reducing the risk of inconsistency between your digital and physical compliance footprint. Allergen Matrix is built specifically to support this kind of joined-up allergen management for food businesses operating on Shopify.
Staying Compliant as Your Menu and Products Evolve
Allergen compliance is not a one-time exercise — it is an ongoing operational responsibility that requires consistent attention every time your business changes. New product launches, seasonal menu updates, recipe reformulations, supplier changes, and kitchen process modifications all have the potential to introduce new allergen risks or alter the accuracy of existing declarations. Building allergen review into your standard change management processes, rather than treating it as a separate compliance task, is the most reliable way to ensure your labelling stays accurate over time.
Maintaining accurate allergen records also puts you in a stronger position if your business is ever subject to inspection by the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets or if a customer raises a serious allergen concern. Being able to demonstrate that you have documented your ingredients, reviewed your labels systematically, and trained your staff creates a meaningful compliance record that reflects genuine diligence. It is significantly more defensible than a reactive approach where allergen information is updated only after a problem has been identified.
Try Allergen Matrix free at saltai.app — no credit card required.
SaltAI Team
SaltAI builds focused Shopify apps for food merchants and general merchants. Every app is tested in production at a real food store — including Vanda's Kitchen — before it ships.