What Does Filtration Do To Oils and Why You Want to Avoid It

When it comes to cold-pressed oils, freshness and purity is everything. After all, you are buying these oils with your health in mind and want to get the most nutrients and benefits out of them. When it comes to cold-pressing oils, quality is always our top priority, and that goes for most of the artisan oil mills out there!

We do not compromise when it comes to the quality of our ingredients, furthermore, only the best drops of oil are being bottled and end up with our customers.

Therefore it is so important to me that customers understand the processes of how our oils are being made. At Ostro Organics Artisan Oil Mill, our only processing step is slowly squeezing out the oil from the seed and catching the oil in a stainless steel barrel. Then we give the oil some time to settle, depending on the variety of oil, up to two or sometimes three days. This is when the sediments in the oil sink to the bottom of the barrel, making the oil clear and ready for bottling.

The key takeaway here is time, high quality products take time and patience to make. Cold-Pressed Oils are no exception. In today’s time driven industrialized food production, most oils are yanked thru a filtration machine, which comes in various shapes and sizes and with various filter options. See, depending on what the oil is later used for, you can choose how much is actually filtered out. For example, for high heat cooking oils, you generally want a very clear and clean oil, no particles or traces of particles left in the oil that might later burn when using the oil at high heat or even deep frying with it. So there is a reason for oils being filtered, mostly to prolong the shelf life of the oil and to use the oil at high temperatures. These oils however are often refined as well and usually not cold-pressed.

Therefore the question arises, why would you filter high quality, cold-pressed oils? Exactly, you can filter them, but what for! If you cold-press the oils frequently, the oils are fresh, full of flavour, nutrients and trace elements. This is the best way to consume freshly cold-pressed oils. Every processing step that follows after the pressing process can and should be questioned. My latest encounter was even more mind boggling when I read the term "naturally refined" on the front side of an oil bottle. To this day I haven't found anyone in the oil milling industry who hasn't giggled over this term. Filtration has evolved over time, no questions, however there is no new or old way, as cold-pressed oil were traditionally given the time to settle in the barrels or tanks they were stored in, right after extraction.

So, be mindful of what the bottles give away, before you put a bottle of oil into your grocery basket. When the oil is cold-pressed, make sure to check where the oil mill is located on the back side of the label. If there is no indication of who pressed the oils, I recommend staying away from it.

Then check on how the oil was processed, when cold-pressed, you sometimes read unfiltered and unrefined, that would be ideal. You also read lightly refined or refined oil, that's an absolute nono if you'd ask me. Buy oils with your health in mind, avoid processed oils when you shop for at home! We can't really escape bad fats and oils when we travel or when we have a good time going out. Therefore it's even more important to purchase high quality, nutrient dense ingredients for at home!

Check for artisan oil mills in your area, see what oils they have to offer and buy fresh, directly from the mill. You'll taste the difference and will win another valuable piece of the food puzzle.

Enjoy exploring and check our online selection of cold-pressed, high quality, nutrient-dense, unfiltered and raw, certified organic oils today!

Manfred

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