The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible presence of sesame in commercial foods normally carrying no warning for the allergen, but which may have been subjected to contamination during processing. One hundred units of widely consumed goods with high potential to contain allergenic substances deriving from nuts were analyzed, using sensitive and capable PCR (C-PCR) and Real Time PCR (RT-PCR) methodologies. Of the products examined, 15 (15.0%) declared the presence of sesame, 36 (36.0%) carried no food allergy label, 44 (44.0%) were marked by the phrase “may contain traces of nuts” and 5 (5.0%) carried the indication “may contain sesame traces”. The sesame-positive products detected using the C-PCR method were 15 (100%), 12 (33.3%), 14 (31.8%) and 3 (60%), respectively. Using the RT-PCR technique, positive results were obtained for 15 (100%), 18 (50.0%), 18 (20.5%) and 5 (100%) samples, respectively. The results indicate that the PCR methods applied are highly sensitive and selective, which makes them suitable for the detection of sesame traces in food samples. In addition, they can be useful for monitoring the effectiveness of cleaning processes in the production units of the food industry.

The objective of this study was to determine the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with sesame production. Energy use efficiency indicators and greenhouse gas emission rates were calculated for the 2022-2023 production season. The energy input and output for sesame production were found to be 12079.15 MJ ha-1 and 30052.44 MJ ha-1, respectively. The study found an energy use efficiency of 2.49, with a specific energy of 12.20 MJ kg-1, an energy productivity of 0.08 kg MJ-1, and a net energy value of 17973.29 MJ ha-1. The direct and indirect energy inputs were calculated to be 4584.41 MJ ha-1 (37.95%) and 7494.74 MJ ha-1 (62.05%), while the renewable and non-renewable energy inputs were calculated to be 469.12 MJ ha-1 (3.88%) and 11610.03 MJ ha-1 (98.65%), respectively. The calculation shows that the total greenhouse gas emissions are 380.52 kgCO2-eq ha-1 and the greenhouse gas emission rate is 0.38 kgCO2-eq ha-1. Sesame production is highly profitable for the 2022-2023 production season in terms of energy use efficiency.