When I first began work on this web site, the task seemed pretty straightforward. Although I had been using coconut oil for several years I was not really aware that more than one type was available. When I learned about and tried unrefined coconut oil and realized how superior it is to refined, bleached and deodorized oil, I thought that others might also be interested in learning about the different types of coconut oil and the methods of their production. I decided to put this information together along with links to articles about the many benefits of coconut oil and thus the web site was born.

Now that a number of companies are actively marketing coconut oil the landscape has changed and I felt the need to address some of the marketing hype which has appeared. The types of coconut oil are still the same but some of the people selling the oil have become very inventive in describing their products to make them sound superior. In an attempt to sort out some of the hype I would like to address a few basic issues regarding coconut oil. Let me stress that I am not saying that the oils which are being "hyped" are poor quality or bad oils. I do feel, however, that the companies who are marketing them in this manner are doing a disservice to their customers and to the general effort to re-educate the public about coconut oil.

What is Virgin Coconut Oil?

Unfortunately, at this point in time Virgin Coconut Oil is essentially whatever the person selling the oil wants it to be. There is no industry standard which establishes specifications for what qualifies as "virgin" coconut oil. With regard to coconut oil, "virgin" has come to mean essentially that it has not been produced from copra and commercially refined, bleached and deodorized. The term does not address the actual production method. One of the definitions of "virgin" in the Merriam-Webster pocket dictionary is: "fresh, unspoiled; especially: not altered by human activity." Our opinion of what constitutes virgin oil depends on our view of the processing method. Would coconut oil still be "virgin" if it were heated to remove moisture? Would coconut oil still be "virgin" if it were extracted from coconut which had been dried first? Based on the promotional material of companies selling it, the answer to both of these questions is yes.

One particularly egregious example of marketing hype is from a company describing its coconut oil as "cold-pressed, extra-virgin coconut oil ... only minutes from coconut to bottle - direct extraction, pressed fresh daily from naturally organic coconuts." It sounds like they are selling fresh-squeezed orange juice. Their web site briefly describes production methods used for different types of oil and begins with the following description of their oil: "The nuts are cracked open and the fresh coconut kernel is grated and manually cold pressed." They conveniently leave out the step between grating the fresh coconut and manual pressing, namely the drying of the coconut. In the words of Jerry Seinfeld (for those of you who were fans), "Not that there's anything wrong with that," but I personally find this error of omission to be misleading at best. The "extra-virgin" term is borrowed from the olive oil industry and is just another attempt to make this oil sound somehow superior to others. Another company advertises this same type of oil as "premium, extra-virgin."

One company selling "virgin" coconut oil produced using the traditional fermentation method makes a similar error of omission in describing the production of their oil: "The milk is then fermented for 24-36 hours, and the oil is then separated and filtered from the curds. No chemical or high-heat (emphasis ours) treatment is used......" They say no "high-heat" but they don't say that in fact the oil is heated in order to remove moisture which is a necessary step in order to insure that the oil does not become rancid.

According to the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) nutrient data base, fresh coconut contains approximately 47% water. If you grate fresh coconut and press it you obtain coconut milk which is a combination of coconut oil and water. To prevent rancidity the moisture content of coconut oil must be 0.1% or less. In order to end up with just coconut oil the water must, one way or another, be removed. The DME (Direct Micro Expeller) method removes some of the water from the coconut before pressing it by drying the coconut. The pressed oil is then normally heated to remove the remaining moisture. The traditional method uses fermentation to cause the oil and water to separate and the oil is then heated to remove remaining moisture.

The centrifuge process takes advantage of the physical differences between coconut oil and water (the coconut oil being lighter) to separate the oil from fresh coconut milk. (The same principle is applied when a centrifuge is used to separate plasma from whole blood.) This process is so efficient and results in a moisture content so low that no additional processing is required.

After years of receiving bad press, I am happy to see that the good word about coconut oil is spreading. I find it distressing, however, to see that some people are also spreading misinformation and hype for the sake of making a sale.

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