Cold pressed seed oils are the unrefined oils that are obtained by pressing and crushing them using a modern electric press. These oils have very little or no volatile oil components. These oils have been extracted using cold pressing methods. The process of extraction through cold pressing includes pressing the seed or nut with a cold press and extract the oil. To achieve the highest quality, these should be cold pressed at temperatures of zero degree Fahrenheit (or Fahrenheit).
There are many different types of cold-pressed seed oils available in the market. Some popular ones include; walnut, peach, apricot, almond, grapeseed, jojoba, grapes, soybean, sunflower, sweet almond, and sweet almond. These oils can be used for many applications. Below is the detailed information about each one of them.
Cold pressed oil from seeds and nuts has very few processing steps during its production. The oil is extracted by cold pressing the seeds and nuts until the fat content is low or even liquid. The oil is then pressed into the liquid state and left to cool. The refining process follows this. During the refining process, various processes are carried out like distillation, carbon filtering, solvent extraction, chemical precipitation and even adding other ingredients to increase the fragrance.
Due to its unique quality, these cold-pressed seed oils market drivers can generate very high value chains. In fact, some of these can generate more value chains than many other types of vegetable oils. Some of these are:
Companies include cold pressed seed oils
Many companies in the North America have started using this kind of cold-pressed seed oils for their products. Some of them include Continental Oil, Sunoco, gasoline, natural gas, XTO, Sherwood, sync rude and Ultra-pure. Many of them have several different lines of these. These include:
Another way to understand the value chain is to analyze the individual companies that use this kind of oil as one of their products. If they all use the same method, then the overall value chain is a closed one. What this means is there is no variation of how each company produces their product. A typical company will start with a crude oil extraction and refining process, followed by pre-treatment and then washing. There are many other steps but these are the general ones.
Cold pressing is used to press out oil without any heat during the extraction and refinement process. The process does not use heat to change the nature of the product. Instead, they are forced to change the form of the seed during the pressing process. The result is that the end product will be in the liquid state only a few minutes after the pressing process started.
The extra virgin olive oil that is considered to be the most pure and premium grade will not be impacted during the pressing process at all. The process of extraction and press-setting does not change the level of purity at all. What does impact is the way the solvent is removed from the seed during the final processing step. As a result, the final product will be highly concentrated and highly priced compared to other olive oils. The best part about this is the extra virgin olive oil is one of the most expensive and popular grades of olive oil today.
Cold pressing seeds can also be done using the mechanical pressing method where hot water is pumped through the seeds until they are cracked. The purpose here is not to extract oil but to crack open the seeds to extract resins. During the crushing process, the oil is easily accessible and with high quality. Cold pressed seed oils are not affected during the pressing process at all.
Cold pressed, unrefined oils are mostly made from olives. The process here is different from cold pressing as the latter is done using hot water and press it on the olives to extract oil. What is important, is that the pressure used during cold pressing is minimal to encourage the process of breakdown of cell walls of olives. Natural oils like this are less expensive and are easily accessible. The process of extraction and pressing are the same for both types of cold pressed oils. The main difference between the two is the method of refining and the price.
Cold pressing is not a true extraction process. It is more of an art rather than a science. This is because pressing the seed does not extract the oil. In order to do so, the seed should be crushed or ground into a powder. Once this is done, it can then be further processed like any other oil. Cold pressed seed and expeller pressing are two of the most common methods of extraction used today.