When it comes to packaging labels it isn't always easy to understand what you're looking at and how to figure out whether what you're buying has all the ingredients you need and non of the ones you want to avoid.
There has been a great deal of publicity about the hidden nasties in some food, and the way over processing can break down the nutritional value of foods, and sometimes even creates toxins.
Armed with this knowledge, it's essential to check labels carefully, and make sure you buy foodstuffs from companies that can back up their claims. As well as ones that have a solid reputation for offering quality-controlled products.
When you're looking for a delicious jar or tub of coconut oil to use in your kitchen, you want to make sure you find the best, purest version you can.
Company credentials and product purity
Delving into food facts means understanding the ‘antecedence’ of things purchased online or in stores. That’s not just where the product was grown and made. It’s also the origin of the ingredients and the methods used by farmers, cultivators, and processors. Even how long ingredients are stored and how far they travel before they reach food cupboards and fridges can impact on quality.
Understanding the antecedence of coconut oil uses such as cooking, frying, baking and beauty can be tricky. Many companies have jumped on the ‘coconut bandwagon’, producing coconut milk, butter and syrups as well as the ever-popular oil products. However, they are not all created equally.
Terms used to describe pure coconut oil
To help discerning consumers go straight to the purest form of coconut oil, we need to explore some of the terminology used.
When buying coconut oil, the first thing you may look for is whether it’s an organic product.
This is certainly true of different size options sold by the Coconut Merchant. We only use coconuts grown without pesticides or genetically modified crops.
The next word to look for is ‘virgin’ or even ‘extra virgin’, which indicates a number of factors.
One is that the coconuts used are mature. Which has given the ‘meat’ of the nut time to develop its sweetest and creamiest texture. As you would imagine, extra virgin indicates that particularly oil-rich, high-grade coconuts were involved.
Also, virgin demonstrates that the oil has been extracted with care. As over processing something as nutritionally balanced at this can destroy some of its values.
We use time-served and natural ways to extract oil from coconut flesh.
So, in a nutshell, if you see the term extra virgin applied to coconut oil, it means that it is unrefined or unprocessed and virgin oil is typically made from fresh coconuts.
What is refined coconut oil?
The word refined can be misleading when it comes to the quality of coconut oil. Although the word may suggest you're getting a purer version, don’t be misled.
If an oil is refined it usually means it has been through various levels of processing including heating, deodorising and bleaching.
Refined coconut oils are typically produced using dried copra, not fresh coconuts, which takes away the distinctive nutty flavour or aroma.
The refining process takes away much of the nutritional value of the coconut oil. Adding in traces of seriously yucky chemicals instead, making it a long way from being pure.
Even our beauty popular CM La Vie beauty oil is unrefined, as well as being organic and extra virgin. We wouldn’t even recommend RBD versions for external use.
Buying raw coconut oil
Now we start really drilling down on the purist and best coconut oil. The version we sell is organic, extra virgin, raw and cold-pressed. A combination of factors that make it award-winning coconut oil.
The terms raw and cold-pressed give you even more evidence that we don’t mess with this delicious, versatile oil. It is kept below 46C throughout its extraction process, and we let natural forces press out what we need.
No chemicals, heat or unnecessarily tinkering, and never, ever additives or preservatives.
So, if you want the purest coconut oil, look no further than our Coconut Merchant raw, organic, extra virgin coconut oils, which all contain 100% coconut and our passion for our craft.