Cold-Pressed Oils Explained
Many times, ingredients use interesting phrases or fancy wording to embellish a raw ingredient and it's amazing qualities. In this case, cold-pressed oils warrant some great benefits and we'd like to explain why.
There are several ways to extract oils from vegetables, nuts and seeds. Some include using hexane as a chemical solvent which recovers about 99% of the oil, but then the oil must be heated to a high temperature in order to rid of this poisonous chemical. When heating the oil at high temperatures, this changes the aroma, color, and nutritional value of the oil.
Then there is the cold-pressed method as well as expeller-pressed method. A cold-pressed method uses a mechanical steel press to literally press the nut, seed, or vegetable in order to squeeze the oil out. In Europe, there is a maximum temperature that manufacturers cannot exceed, which is about 90 deg F. In the US, there is no standard, but as long as the nut, seed, or vegetable does not exceed 115 degrees F while being pressed, it can be defined as being cold-pressed and most of the nutritional value, aroma and deep rich color will retain.
We like to compare this to cooking. If someone were to serve you steamed broccoli versus blanched broccoli versus raw broccoli, which one would you say will retain the most nutritional value? (Think of the green hue that results from boiling broccoli in water). Well, the same idea applies in extracting oils. It is best to retain as much nutritional value by not introducing chemicals or high heat to the process.
Image source: Shiny Diamond
At Fyve, we try our best to source as many raw ingredients that are cold-pressed and organic whenever possible, so you receive all the nutritional benefits. Our Hydrating Face Oil has three out of five ingredients that are cold-pressed: cold-pressed meadowfoam seed oil, cold-pressed evening primrose oil, and cold-pressed cranberry seed oil.
We hope this gives you a quick, concise explanation of what the cold-pressed process is and why it's beneficial for you.