Natural Pure Coconut Oil 750ml Plastic Bottle

White Coconut Oil (Pure Coconut Oil)

Yellow color is the result of heat generation inside grinding machines. Plus the fact that they are produced by oven dried coconuts in high temperatures. Heating up to high temperatures takes out a part of natural goodness. like cold press expellers are used in virgin coconut manufacturing, “Anderson” type heavy expellers are used in conventional coconut oil manufacturing. And it is a heated press in such type of expellers.

The term “White” is used because, sometimes coconut oil is pressed only using brown peels (kurutta, testa or parings). This oil is named “Paring Oil / Brown testa Oil” (Kurutu Thel). When coconut oil is pressed using the entire kernel (both white flesh and paring) it is called “White Coconut Oil” (Sudu Polthel). It is a word used to differentiate between the two types based on the material used for pressing out oil. It does not refer to the color of the oil.

Usage & Health Benefits 

• Economical choice for cooking, frying and roasting
• Healthy and natural replacement for margarines or extensively refined cooking vegetable palm oils
• Stable in high heat deep frying. Does not transform into carcinogenic compounds or transfats

A Note on Virgin Coconut Oil

Mother’s breast milk contains a fat called “Lauric acid”. During pregnancy and breast feeding, lauric acid supplements are consumed. Without complex theory, lauric acid (contained in breast milk) boosts immunity, helps absorption of nutrients from other foods and improves cognitive function. This is the story behind the trend of drinking two table spoons of  virgin coconut oil per day!

Dementia and Alzheimer’s diseases have become a household name at present. Anointing the head with coconut and herbal oils takes a significant place in Sri Lankan New Year rituals and in regular life. Is there a story to be rediscovered?

Types of Coconut Oil

Extra Virgin & Whole Kernel Virgin

The term “Virgin” is used to emphasize that, all nutrients in a nut/seed/ or fruit is preserved when it is converted to the format of oil. For example if leafy greens or veggies are cooked components like vitamins, anti-oxidants, are lost and the nutrition percentage of each nutrient is a bit altered. Thus, if an oil (coconut, olive, avocado) is termed “virgin”, the original fruit/nut is “COLD-PRESSED” (Imagine squeezing out oil of a fruit or seed by hand or in Sekkuwa Chekku. There is no high heat generation). The fruits/nuts used for the pressing should also be fresh in its original form. It cannot be dried in sunlight for weeks (like in “copra”. When coconut flesh is dried in sunlight it is named as Copra), or heated with fire to take out moisture. So virgin coconut oil is RAW and COLD PRESSED to achieve the above qualities.

Brown testa is peeled off, to produce one liter extra virgin coconut oil it needs 14 fresh coconuts. The brown testa (“Kurutta”) is removed and only the white flesh is used. But in whole kernel virgin coconut oil, the entire kernel is used. So it needs only 10 fresh coconuts to produce liter of oil. Because in the brown testa (or the peel) it has considerable amount of coconut oil.

Pairing Coconut Oil (Kurutu Thel)

In desiccated coconut, coconut milk and virgin coconut oil industries, the coconut paring (the brown peel around the white flesh) is removed and moved out of the facility. These parings also have a significant percentage of oil content.

These parings are collected separately and pressed in a Anderson type general expeller to make paring coconut oil. It is used as the lowest cost option for deep frying, cooking applications.

Refined Coconut Oil (RBD Coconut Oil)

The problem with normal coconut oil when used for Chinese rolls, Fried rice and Chillie paste is that it becomes rancid soon when it gets into contact with moisture of other food ingredients and gives out the coconut smell. It is sometimes unpreferable and rejected by the consumers of such recopies.

So Normal coconut oil is heated, sent through coconut charcoal, filtered to remove coconut smell, taste, and free fatty acids which cause quick rancidity. This also increases smoke point up to 220 degrees Celsius (430 Fahrenheit) making it suitable for extreme deep frying and mass scale cooking industries.

MCT Coconut Oil (Caprylic C8 and C8/10 60:40)

MCT Oil Remains a liquid in cold temperature (As Olive Oil), because it only contain medium chain triglycerides (MCT). In simple meaning MCTs are the light weight, fast burning fats in virgin coconut oil.

“MCT Oil or Ketogenic Oil” is a manufacturing process that separates only the medium chains in coconut oil (It is similar to extracting  petrol or gas by distilling a crude oil). Here virgin coconut oil is the primary source, and the specific fast burning fats are extracted by a stringent process. Final product is identified as “100% MCT oil or Ketogenic Oil”.