South Pacific Virgin Coconut Oil is a high quality machine-made Virgin Coconut Oil. Certified organic fresh coconuts are first dried and then the oil is cold-pressed out by machine. As with other Virgin Coconut Oils, this oil retains the scent and taste of coconuts. Our SP Virgin Coconut Oil is made in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea under strict quality control procedures to produce a consistent product that meets stringent USDA organic certification standards. This high quality Virgin Coconut Oil is NOT made from copra, but from certified organic fresh coconuts that are processed shortly after they are harvested. After the oil is cold-pressed out of the dried coconut meat, no further refining is needed.
Refined Coconut Oil
Most commercial grade coconut oils are made from copra. Copra is basically the dried kernel (meat) of the coconut. It can be made by: smoke drying, sun drying, or kiln drying , or derivatives or a combination of these three. If standard copra is used as a starting material, the unrefined coconut oil extracted from copra is not suitable for consumption and must be purified, that is refined. This is because the way most copra is dried is not sanitary. The standard end product made from copra is RBD coconut oil.
RBD stands for refined, bleached, and deodorized. High heat is used to deodorize the oil, and the oil is typically filtered through (bleaching) clays to remove impurities. Sodium hydroxide is generally used to remove free fatty acids and prolong shelf life. This is the most common way to mass-produce coconut oil. More modern methods also use chemical solvents to extract all the oil from the copra for higher yields.
RBD oil is also sometimes hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated. This happens mostly in tropical climates, since the natural melting point of coconut oil is about 76 degrees F, and already naturally a solid in most colder climates. Since coconut oil is mostly saturated, there is little unsaturated oil left to hydrogenate. Hydrogenated oils contain trans fatty acids.
Virgin Coconut Oil
Virgin Coconut Oil can only be achieved by using fresh coconut meat or what is called non-copra. Chemicals and high heating are not used in further refining, since the natural, pure coconut oil is very stable with a shelf life of several years. We quick dry fresh coconut meat which is then used to press out the oil. Our oil then goes through a state of the art filtering system and is then ready for export.
One of the main differences between Virgin Coconut oil and refined coconut oils is the scent and taste. All Virgin Coconut Oils retain the fresh scent and taste of coconuts, whereas the copra-based refined coconut oils have a bland taste due to the refining process. Some grades of refined copra-based oils are also now sold that have a coconut flavor, but are usually bitter and have a burnt taste to it. They are a form of "crude coconut oil" that has not undergone all of the deodorizing process, and they have a shorter shelf-life.
Laboratory tests show that our South Pacific Virgin Coconut Oil is a very high quality coconut oil, with very high antioxidant levels. Our coconuts are certified organic according to strict USDA standards. In addition, all of our coconuts are hand-picked within 24-48 hours of harvest. Only those nuts that produce the highest quality coconut oil are chosen, while the rest of the crop is sold to copra dealers. Because of our extremely selective procedure for selecting the coconuts, we pay a higher price to the farmer. Almost all other virgin coconut oils on the market are mass-produced and do not take this kind of attention to detail that begins with choosing the right nuts. Also, the coconuts used to make our Virgin Coconut Oil are grown in very rural areas, far away from pollutants of any kind.
We can package in any size for your particular needs.
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