Best Coconut Cooking Oil in India – A Comprehensive Summary

Coconut oil is extracted from the kernel of the coconut, which is the white edible layer inside of a coconut, using a Chemical or Physical extraction process.

PS: Note that words "flesh" or "meat" are also in common usage to denote the Kernel referred above, for the lack of better alternatives. Rest assured that it is a 100% Vegan / Vegetarian product!

Historically coconut oil has been used for cooking purposes for thousands of years in Southern India, mainly in Kerala, Coastal Karnataka and Parts of Tamilnadu. In the Ayurvedic treatise Sushruta Samhita (estimated to be somewhere around 600 BC to 400 BC) mentions Narikela, Sanskrit word for Coconuts. In the early Tamil Sangam Literature, in the poem Tholkappiyam, which is estimated to be written around 200 BC, there is mention of coconut plantations. In latter literatures such as Sankrit playwright Kalidasa’s Shakuntala and Raghuvansha (around 4 ^th -5 ^th century AD) there are references to Coconut. Hence, we can safely say that coconut has been known to and used by Indians for thousands of years.

Refined (Chemical Process) vs Unrefined (Physical Process):

Based on the extraction process, coconut oil can be classified as either Refined or Unrefined.

In the Refined coconut oil, chemical solvents such as hexane etc., are used to dissolve the oil content and later distilled to sperate the oil. Separated oil is filtered, bleached and deodorized and is called as Refined oil. While Refined oil is still Oil and still edible, it loses most of micronutrients (e.g.: vitamins etc.) and natural color, flavor and aroma. Only advantage we see in refined oil is that it will be cheap, as the chemical extraction results in higher yield, thus lowering the cost.

Unrefined coconut oil is extracted without using any chemical solvents, usually using any one of the following Physical extraction methods: Expeller Machine (results in Normal / Regular oil if Copra is Roasted or Cold Pressed oil if Copra is unroasted), Wooden Mill / Kolhu / Chekku (results in Wood Pressed oil), Or Centrifuge Process (results in Extra Virgin oil).

• Normal or Regular Coconut Oil is extracted using an Expeller machine from dried coconut (copra) after roasting the copra, which results in strong flavor and yellowish color.
• Cold Pressed Coconut Oil is extracted using an Expeller machine from dried coconut (copra) without roasting the copra, which results is mild sweet flavor and whitish color.
• Wood Pressed Coconut Oil is extracted using Wooden Mill / Kolhu / Chekku from dried coconut (copra) extracted from dried coconut (copra), which results is mild sweet flavor and whitish color.
• Extra Virgin Coconut Oil is extracted using Centrifuge Process from raw coconut, which results in sweet flavor and transparent color.

Quality Vs. Price:

Generally speaking

• Extra Virgin coconut oil is Highest Quality and Highest Price.
• Wood Press and Cold Press Coconut Oils are of similar quality.

However, price of Wood Pressed coconut oil is usually higher than that of Cold Pressed coconut oil, because a) Wood Pressed Oil Mills operate at a smaller scale compared to Cold Pressed Oil Mills, resulting in higher raw material cost as they are unable benefit from economies of scale (i.e. Wood Press mill pays more for Copra than what it costs for the Cold Press mill) and b) Wood Pressing has lower oil yield than Cold Pressing using Expeller (i.e. for the same amount of coconuts (or copra) used, Cold Pressing gets more oil than Wood Pressing).

• Normal / Regular coconut oils have a broad quality range. They can be as high quality as a Wood Pressed or Cold Pressed oil, if right raw materials and processing techniques are used. On the other hand, they could also be lower quality, if right raw materials are not used. Price will be slightly lower than or in the same ball park figure as the Cold Pressed coconut oils.
• Refined Oils are lowest quality and lowest price

Summary Comparison

This has been explained taking Cold Pressed Coconut Oil as a specific example.

There are 3 steps in the Manufacturing Process for Cold Pressed Coconut Oil, namely: a) Pre Processing b) Processing and c) Post Processing

a. Pre Processing

- comprises of all activities in which coconut is prepared for extracting oil.

Harvesting: As a 1 ^st step, mature coconuts are harvested from the coconut tree. At this stage, farmers can keep them indefinitely, ranging from same day sale to waiting for several months for a good price. Coconuts with outer husk intact and coconut water inside remain fresh for a long time. As the days pass, outer green color of the coconut husk changes to grey color as coconut dries.

Dehusking: Outer husk is removed, either manually using traditional tool or dehusking machine when operating at large scale. This leaves coconut with outer husk removed, but with hard shell intact.

Break the Coconut: Coconut is broken into 2 parts, usually in a manual process by hitting it with a blunt rod-like object specifically made for that purpose.

Dry the Coconut: Broken coconuts are sun dried (or in dryers if sunlight is not sufficient) to remove the water content.

Separate the shell and get Copra: After 2-3 days of sun drying, the outer shells become lose and Copra (dried coconut meat, from which Oil is extracted) is easily separated out.

b. Processing

- comprises of the set of activities, in which Copra is cut into smaller prices and fed into an Expeller Machine in a factory and oil is extracted.

Make pieces of copra: Copra, which is at the size of half coconut, is cut into small pieces of 2cm-3cm length, using a cutting machine.

Extract Coconut Oil from Expeller Machine: Copra Pieces are fed into Expeller Machine which crushes those pieces and extracts oil.

Physical Filtering: Extracted oil is passed through a physical system of plates and filter clothes 2-3 times to remove any sediments and water content.

Collection in Containers: After Filtering, Oil is stored in metal containers.

c. Post Processing

- includes Packing and Storage (or Dispatch) activities, and converts the factory produced coconut oil to consumer ready form. Packing is usually done in PET bottles, or Packs made up of LDPE films or HDPE Cans. 

Quality of coconut oil is impacted by a variety of factors including the raw materials and hygiene standards followed in the manufacturing process. We list a few important ones below:

• Fresh Coconut vs Old Coconut – Coconut oil is extracted from the dried form of Coconut, called Copra. This Copra, once it leaves the farmer’s premise, can be kept in storage for a long time by traders, wholesalers or factories. As time passes, the coil content inside Copra slowly but continuously keeps getting rancid. Change happens so slow that if it is a matter of few weeks of storage, human sensory organs will no be able to detect any changes resulting from rancidity. However, if Copra storage is for longer duration, say for several months, cumulative effects of rancidity will result in distinct changes in smell and taste of the oi for the worse; oil may have a bad smell and taste; definitely it will not have the Fresh feeling when it is smelled or tasted. 

          For best quality, coconut oil needs to be extracted from fresh copra.

• Sun Dry vs Heater Dry – Traditionally Copra is dried in large drying yard, by exposing them to natural sunlight. This method does not overheat the Copra and will enable preservation of nutrients. Alternative is to use Heaters or Drying Chambers, where hot air is passed on Copra pieces to evaporate the moisture. This exposes Copra to higher heat than natural sunlight and may lead to loss of more nutrients than the traditional Sunlight method.

• Growing Region - Tropical Riverside vs Plains -   Coconut is indigenous to tropical regions, closer to equator of the earth (such as Southern India and other Asia-Pacific countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka etc.). Coconut trees love hot and humid climate; need a lot of water to grow; they grow naturally on river sides; they are tolerant to sea water and hence they thrive on sea islands and coastal beaches.

• Water Residue - If there is excess water content left over in coconut oil, then Coconut Oil will go bad soon (gets rancid and starts giving foul smell). This is more likely in Wood Pressed Coconut Oils as the water usage is manually controlled and depends on the skills of the operator. Presence of water also results in the formation of excess foam or sizzling, when oil is used for Deep Frying.

Even though coconuts can be grown on Plain lands away from river or sea with the help of irrigation, the oil yield is typically lower than what they yield in their natural habitat. Coconut gourmands claim that quality of riverside or coastal coconuts in terms of flavor and taste is better than that of plain land coconuts.

In India, Consumers believe that Edible Oils / Cooking Oils are highly adulterated, and not without reason. Coconut Oil is also impacted by said malaise. The adulterants can be classified into 2 parts: a) Liquid Paraffin or some such Petroleum product and b) Other cheaper oils (like palm oil)

• a) Liquid Paraffin or such Petroleum products are colorless and almost odorless and very cheap; once mixed in coconut oil, very hard to differentiate unless advanced tests are conducted; hard for a Consumer to detect adulteration.
• b) Other oils like Palm oil which are cheaper than coconut oil are said to be mixed with coconut oil.                                                                                     -> To test, pour oil in a transparent Glass beaker and freeze it; if there are 2 or more different oils present, then they will solidify into 2 different layers; if there is no mix, coconut oil alone will solidify as a single layer.

Our Tip for the consumer is to use oil only from your trusted source or Brand. Consumers can also complain to FSSAI in case they suspect any oils to be adulterated.

First Press means oil is extracted for the 1^st time from the Coconut (or Copra). This is the natural, nutritious and quality oil.

Second Press means the oil is extracted again from the left overs of the first press, typically using some Chemical process. This second press oil is of lower quality and less nutritious than 1^st grade; however very hard to detect from physical inspection. Many Brands don’t explicitly call out that they are 2^nd pressing the oil. Consumers are advised to be careful and stick to known source or trusted Brands.

Coconut oil has multiple uses as listed: Cooking, Skin Care (Moisturizer for Skin), Hair Care (as Hair Oil), Body Massage, baby Massage, Oil Pulling (for Oral Health), Keto Diet, Salad Dressing

Coconut Oil is almost entirely made up of Fats, and most of the fat in coconut oil is Saturates (or Saturated Fatty Acids) for a total of 87% comprising of Lauric acid, Myristic acid, Palmitic acid, Capric acid and Caprylic acid; Oleic acid is the only mono-unsaturated fatty acid in coconut oil comprising of about 5%-6% mass; remaining 7%-8% is a collection of Polyunsaturated fat contents.

As with many edible oils, coconut oil is not having any Carbohydrates, Protein or Fibre.

There is minute presence of Vitamin E in coconut oil, which is beneficial for Hair and Skin.

We are glad to inform

a) nutndiet doesn’t offer any Refined oils; we only offer pure, natural edible oils

b) nutndiet offers best in class products in each of the 3 types of Unrefined coconut oils: Normal / Regular Coconut Cooking Oil, Cold Pressed Coconut Oil and Virgin Coconut Oil.

c) Wood Pressed – nutndiet doesn’t offer wood pressed coconut oils because we believe we can provide same quality, natural nutrition and better Freshness to our customers at a lower price via nutndiet Cold Pressed Coconut Oil.

Each of the products nutndiet offers corresponding to the 3 different coconut oil types is of very high quality and Best in respective Class, because

1. High quality raw materials (coconuts or copra) are used
2. Fresh Coconuts sourced from farmers (not Copra from wholesale traders) and oil extracted; hence minimal storage duration between Farm and Pack (between Harvesting and Oil Extraction).
3. Unrefined to preserve all the rich nutrients, flavor and aroma. Free from chemicals, pesticides, preservatives, artificial colors or flavors.
4. Sourced from remote, pristine, predominantly river side / coastal locations of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Southern Coastal Karnataka, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep, where pollutions found in the big cities is yet to reach and which are natural habitats of coconut trees.
5. Manufactured in hygienic settings in Factories having all necessary food safety certifications and following food safety norms & best practices.

Here are some customer reviews:

"I just love this oil.... This is the best virgin coconut oil I have ever used..... Must buy product." - Preeti, Amazon customer

"Real Quality coconut oil., Taste and smell is Good. Fresh and healthy. Good for internal and external use." - Deepak, Amazon customer

"This is a very good coconut oil. The oil smells so pure. Using it for cooking and loving it. Totally recommend" - snigdha chakraboty, Amazon customer

"Amazing fragrance of this original coconut oil. I have been using it for a week now...great results and smooth skin." -
Ritika Mittal - Amazon customer

"I like the product.
Product is suitable for cooking, skin and hair.
Original coconut oil is useful. Thanks for the product." - Apeksha Gupta, Amazon customer

"Good for hair. Smells good and I would use it again. Worth the money even though it is a bit pricey" - Ramesh K J, Amazon customer

- Abhijit Talukdar, Amazon customer

"Bahut hi achcha hi oil hai mujhe to bahut achcha Laga organic coconut oil" - Kamal hossaain, Amazon customer

"Best oil best quality" - Krishna Boro, Flipkart customer

"Pure organic coconut oil no doubt I like it nd packaging are very good TQ meesho ❤️" - Padmavati Nayak, Meesho customer

Here are some customer reviews:

"Quality is good" - GOPALAKRISHNAN R., Amazon customer

"Very good quality of the oil and can be used in anyway of oil uses, cooking, body, hair, salad dressing. But prices are little higher." - Aadya, Amazon customer

"It's smells good over all good product." - Anu, Amazon customer

"If you are looking for a reason to ditch those pathetic refined oils than go for coconut oil, your food smells amazing, tastes better and its actually healthier, pricing wise its decent." - Shahezad, Amazon customer

"The bottle had few feathery white sediments of the product at its base, so do give it a good shake prior to opening the bottle so that it gets dissolved. Mild coconutty fragrance to the product. It's light weight, so one can even use it for a massage. Expiry is 9 months from manufacturing date." - Candid me, Amazon customer

"The real stuff. Love cooking in coconut oil." -  Nitin, Amazon customer

I'm writing this review after the consumption of the product...I like how the flavour stays and smell. I got it in a good deal. Would like to buy more." - Flipkart customer

"Value for money. ORIGINAL COCONUT OIL WITH very good taste and aroma. Thanks flipkart." - Dr. Shashi Bhushan, Flipkart customer

"Thnk u nit n diet love your coconut oil very good pure and sweet taste of the coconut thnk u I wanted my 1 lit coconut cooking oil thnk u so much seller." - praachi saini, Meesho customer

Here are some customer reviews:

"Please keep up ur quality and quantity..All the best..Keep it up" - Jay, Amazon customer

"I amazed with this product...... really a good product go with it" - Seema, Amazon customer

"Really best quality, original, i started to order continue from this seller, please please you have maintain ty his quality" - Sooraj, Amazon customer

"It is pure and smells good" - Flipkart customer

1. What is the best before date (shelf-life) of nutndiet coconut oil products?

Ans: For Virgin Coconut Oil it is 18 months, for Cold press coconut oil, shelf life is 6 months if packed in Pouches and 9 months if packed in bottles or Cans and for Premium cooking oil 9 months.

2. Is it Pure?

Ans: yes, these are Pure coconut oils.

3. Do you have Cash on Delivery (CoD)?

Ans: Yes, Cash on Delivery available

4. What are the Delivery Charges (Shipping Fees)?

Ans: There are no Delivery Charges; shipping is Free.

5. How long does it take to get the product delivered?

Ans: It may take anywhere from 2  to 6 days depending on customer location. We do provide a tracking link so that you can have visibility where your order is.

6. Do you deliver outside India?

Ans: Currently No. We only deliver within India.