Roasted sesame oil: A review on production technology, flavor chemistry, and other related issues

Sesame oil (SO) produced through roasting technology offers pleasant flavor, often named roasted sesame oil (RSO) in the market. During the RSO production process, roasting is an essential technology in determining the flavor of RSO, which directly influences the consumer acceptance. Therefore, the present work systematically offers current knowledge on flavors and related issues of RSO, which will focus on production technologies (i.e., roasting technology, extraction technology, subsequent processing technology), flavor characteristics and flavor compounds, formation pathways of major flavor compounds (i.e., Maillard reaction pathway, oil oxidation pathway, thermal degradation pathway), and effects of roasting on the nutrition and safety. In addition, the present work provides an outlook for the future development of RSO industry, including the establishment of a grading system for the evaluation of RSO flavors, high-value utilization of by-products from RSO processing, and how to improve production efficiency of RSO. This work could provide a better understanding of RSO roasting process and promising information for better production of aromatic, nutritious and safe RSO by controlling/innovating the roasting process.