Does tahini need to be refrigerated after its opened?

I would guess that unless you've canned it (e.g., sterilized the tahini and put that into a sterilized jar), or dried it, you're going to have to refrigerate it -- it certainly won't hurt.

I think, similar to peanut butter, that you could keep it unrefrigerated, but you'll get oil separation, and possibly nasty stuff growing in it if you got the moisture content wrong...

i would also suggest refrigeration - nuts and seeds tend to go rancid

We don't refrigerate our tahini after we open it. Putting it in the refrigerator causes it to get sticky and hard-not the texture u want when making hummous again. Leaving it out won't hurt it, Just follow the experation date

i put my tahini in the fridge. I find that it is fine to make hummus with.

Just about everything except hard liquor and honey need to be refrigerated. Everything else, it's just a matter of how long, not when, it will rot. Hard liquor and honey are both, by their nature, preservatives. The British Navy used to ship dead bodies in rum, the Roman Empire shipped bodies in honey. Mmmmm, I'll take the Caligula and baklava to go, please.

thanks for all the answers. right now I've decided to go with Rayiscool and not to refrigerate. I have to slightly disagree with Hossman --plenty of things don't get refrigerated here in Italy..eggs for instance aren't refrigerated in italian supermarkets or homes.

Then Italians must be consuming them relatively promptly. Eggs certainly do spoil, hence the phrase "a rotten egg." Again, every foodstuff without a preservative that is not itself a preservative, will eventually go bad.

thanks hossman, I'm prepared to take the risk.

@hossman: except honey... (well, okay, maybe just on really long time scales)

Honey's been found in egyptian burial vaults, where it was still edible (and apparently quite tasty).