How Organic Coconut Oil Is Made
When coconut oil or any other product is classified as organic, that means that every process involved in obtaining the product should be organic. This means that from farming, harvesting, and processing, the farms and factories involved should be certified organic. Organic coconut oil can only be obtained from manufacturers who partner with organic farms.
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Reaching organic standards for farms nowadays can be quite difficult. For the past decades, farms have been rooted in the use of chemical fertilizers, thus, shifting to pure organic standards can require an overhaul in terms of material and methods. This goes for coconut farms as well.There are ten fundamentals that a coconut farm must have in order to be classified as organic. These crucial elements include mulching, green fertilizer, legume usage, crop rotation, minimal tillage, companion planting, composting, livestock integration, and insect habitat. If even one of these elements is missing, the farm can no longer be classified as truly organic.
The importance of using organic methods for coconut farms is highly stressed because if the farms themselves are not up to par, the coconuts and the oil will not have the purity and nutritional content that people are led to believe they have.
Production:
To produce raw coconut oil, coconuts are broken and the flesh is set out to dry. Normally, chemicals are used to speed up the process. However, to obtain pure coconut oil, no chemicals are used in the process of drying. During unrefined coconut oil extraction, only low temperatures and mechanical means are used. No chemical solvents are included in the process. Refining is done by sedimentation and low pressure filters.Certification:
Every country has their own department of agriculture that is responsible in certifying the quality of the products. The United States Department of Agriculture for example, sets four levels of organics. These USDA seals can be found in the product labels to inform the consumer just how pure the product is:1. 100% Organic Seal – This seal recognizes the use of organic methods from farming, to production. All techniques used in producing the material passed organic standards.
2. Organic – This is when 95% of the product’s contents are classified as organic.
3. Made with organic ingredients – 70% or more of the contents are organic.
4. No organic seal or wording on the package – less than 70% of the ingredients are non organic and it does not pass any organic standards set by the USDA.
Purchasing Organic Coconut Oil:
When buying organic coconut oil, the best thing to do is to check the certification on the label of the product. It is also advisable to purchase pure coconut oil in health stores that are known to sell quality products.The advantage of using certified organic coconut oil is the assurance that the oil fully contains all the wonderful elements that is responsible for the improvement of overall health in the body. Uncertified coconut oil may appear and taste the same, but the nutritional content is lacking, putting all efforts of improving health in vain.
Ref : http://hltips.com/organic-coconut-oil-what-makes-it-the-best/