Hydration kinetics of sesame seeds (SS) in plain water was determined at temperatures of 27-60 degrees C A new model was proposed to describe the hydration kinetics of SS. A novel alternative technique, time-temperature-superposition technique (TTST). was also introduced for modeling the effect of temperature on water absorption kinetics of SS. The diffusion coefficient values calculated using two different forms of Fick's second law were all of the order of 10(-11) m(2)/s. The new introduced model was able to adequately describe the hydration kinetics of SS with RMSE of less than 5%. Moisture absorption in SS was an endothermic process with a heat of absorption of 7.37 kJ/mol The TTST found to be an adequate technique for modeling the effect of temperature on water absorption data. The soluble solid losses after 225 min soaking were found to be between 0.26% and 2.85% for temperatures of 27-60 degrees C. An exponential relationship (R(2) = 0.949) was obtained between solids losses and electrical conductivity of leak water. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.