Everything Bagel Seasoning: Ingredients, Origin and Uses

At least four people claim to have invented the everything bagel, and no source can say for sure which one did. Its seed-and-salt topping, sold on its own in a shaker, usually means poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried minced garlic and onion, and sea salt. It’s crunchy, salty and savory, not hot, and ever since Trader Joe’s started selling a shaker of it in February 2017, it’s turned up on far more than bagels.¹

At a glance


What it is	A topping blend of seeds, dried alliums and salt
Typical ingredients	Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried minced garlic and onion, sea salt
Origin	New York bagel bakeries; at least four people claim the everything bagel¹
Sold as a shaker	Trader Joe’s from February 2017¹
Official standard	None found; the USDA spice-blend specification does not include it²
Allergens	Sesame, a major food allergen in the US³
Watch for	Poppy seeds carry traces of opium alkaloids; the EU caps them at 20 mg/kg⁴

What is in it

There’s no fixed recipe. Food writer David Farley lists poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried minced garlic and onion, and sea salt.¹ Chowhound gives the ingredients of Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend in label order, most to least:⁵

Version	Ingredients	Source
David Farley, TASTE	Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, dried minced garlic and onion, sea salt	¹
Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel, as listed by Chowhound	White sesame seeds, sea salt flakes, dried minced garlic, dried minced onion, black sesame seeds, poppy seeds	⁵

On the Trader Joe’s list, sesame comes first and poppy seeds last. Chowhound gives no measurements and suggests adjusting the ratios to taste.⁵ The USDA’s purchasing specification for spice blends has no entry for everything bagel seasoning.²

Who invented the everything bagel

No source says for sure. Writing in TASTE in 2019, David Farley found no fewer than four people who claim to have invented it:¹

Claimant	Claim	Source
David Gussin	About 15 in 1980, working at Charlie’s Bagels in Howard Beach, Queens; his job included sweeping out the oven, and he suggested putting the burned seeds on a bagel	¹
Joe Bastianich	Around 1979 at the Bagel Den in Bayside, Queens, had the idea of a bagel with the seasoning that fell off other bagels	¹
Seth Godin	Says he was making everything bagels at 16 in 1976, “So were a lot of people”	¹
Brandon Steiner	Says that at 12, in 1971, working as a night baker in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, he began adding seasonings	¹

Gussin bought the everythingbagel.com domain in 1996 and later let it lapse, and he told Farley he doesn’t want to claim to be the inventor.¹ Godin now calls his earlier claims hyperbole. Two of the stories share a detail: seeds left over from baking other bagels.

Flavor and the compounds behind it

The blend tastes salty, toasty and nutty, with a sweet-savory edge from the dried onion and garlic. Here’s what the sources say about the seeds:

Ingredient	What the source says	Source
Sesame	Pyrazines dominate the flavor at mild toasting temperatures (160°C)	⁶
Poppy seed	Nutty and pleasant; develops a nutty flavor during baking	⁷

We found no analysis of the blend as a whole.

How to use it

It works on anything that wants salt and crunch: avocado toast, eggs, buttered bread, roast potatoes, popcorn, or as a crust for fish or chicken. Salt is a main ingredient (second on the Trader Joe’s list),⁵ so season the rest of the dish lightly. More ideas: everything bagel seasoning uses.

Buying and making it

Check the order of ingredients on the label. Since they’re listed from most to least, it tells you whether you’re buying mostly seeds or mostly salt.⁵ To make your own, Chowhound suggests just stirring the components together to taste. If you toast the sesame first, Katzer credits sesame’s flavor under mild toasting mainly to pyrazines.⁶

Storage

No source gives a shelf life for the blend. Treat it like the seeds in it: airtight, cool and dark. See poppy seeds and sesame seeds for those ingredients on their own.

Safety

Sesame allergy. Sesame is one of the nine major food allergens in the US.³ The FDA has noted that some manufacturers are intentionally adding sesame to products that didn’t contain it before, and advises checking the label every time.⁸

Poppy seeds and opium alkaloids. Poppy seeds come from Papaver somniferum. Gernot Katzer puts the alkaloid content of the seeds at about 50 ppm, too low for any drug effect, but notes that morphine can show up in urine after heavy consumption.⁷ The European Union sets a maximum of 20 mg/kg for poppy seeds sold to consumers and 1.5 mg/kg for bakery products containing poppy seeds, measured as morphine plus 0.2 times codeine.⁴ We didn’t find an equivalent US limit in the sources we checked.

Lead in spices generally. A New York City review of 1,496 spice samples collected from 2008 to 2017 found detectable lead in more than half.⁹ The abstract doesn’t break results out by product, and we found no data specific to this blend.

Health claims

You’ll see claims that the blend treats constipation or obesity, or that a teaspoon or two is a meaningful source of vitamins and minerals. We couldn’t trace any of them to a regulator or systematic review, so we don’t make them.

Everything bagel seasoning uses
The seeds: sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, black vs white sesame, hulled vs unhulled sesame, poppy seeds
Substitutes for the seeds: sesame seeds substitute, poppy seeds substitute
The alliums: garlic, garlic powder, onion powder
Other seed-and-salt toppings: gomasio, furikake, dukkah, zaatar

David Farley, “Everyone Invented the Everything Bagel”, TASTE, 2019. tastecooking.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹
Commercial Item Description A-A-20001C, Spices and Spice Blends, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, 2023. ams.usda.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩²
“Food Allergies”, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. fda.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩²
Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 on maximum levels for certain contaminants in food, Annex I, point 2.5. eur-lex.europa.eu · Regulator ↩ ↩²
Megan Shoop-Volz, “How To Recreate Trader Joe’s Everything But The Bagel Seasoning At Home”, Chowhound, 2024. chowhound.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Gernot Katzer, “Sesame (Sesamum indicum)”, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Gernot Katzer, “Poppy (Papaver somniferum L.)”, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Robert M. Califf, “An Update on Sesame Allergen Labeling on Food Packages”, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2023. fda.gov · Regulator ↩
Hore et al., “A Spoonful of Lead: A 10-Year Look at Spices as a Potential Source of Lead Exposure”, Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 2019. scholars.mssm.edu · Peer-reviewed ↩

Everything Bagel Seasoning: What’s in It, Who Invented It, and the Poppy Seed Question