Low Grade Coconut Oill from Copra: Refined Bleached Deodorize
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 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: i.e. refined. This is because the way most copra is dried is very unsanitary. It is dried in the sun in the open air, where it is exposed to contamination from insects and moulds. The standard end product made from copra is RBD coconut oil.
RBD stands for refined, bleached, and deodorized. Both high heat and chemicals (e.g. solvent extractions) are used in this method. The older way of producing refined coconut oil was through physical/mechanical refining. More modern methods also use chemical solvents to extract all the oil from copra for higher yields.
The final product is generally pure white, has a thick waxy texture, and no fragrance or taste. It is often referred to as a natural product but this only means that it hasn't been hydrogenated and turns from solid to liquid at about 24°C.
Buyer beware because RBD oil can also be hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated. Hydrogenated oils have been shown to increase serum cholesterol levels, which contribute to heart disease.
The Copra Problem Conventional
Low grade coconut oil comes from dried coconut flesh, called copra. Copra is dried in a wood-fueled kiln, or in the sun, over a period of a few days.
Processing copra oil uses an enormous amount of natural resources, is time-consuming, dirty, lonely, arduous, and low-paying work. Many farmers actually consider copra production a form of slavery.
Copra is piled up and stored in containers in the heat at a port waiting to be shipped to a large industrial oil mill — often in Europe or Asia. Unhygienic drying, humid tropical conditions, mass shipping and long distances result in lengthy delays as well as the growth of moulds on the copra. Sometimes this leads to aflatoxin contamination.
Copra oil extraction requires large-scale, high-pressure, expensive equipment that use a fair amount of natural resources to operate. The resultant unhygienic copra oil is normally of low quality with a Free Fatty Acid (FFA) level of 3% or more. (FFA is one measure of rancidity of oil).
Thus copra oil requires refining, bleaching and deodorizing (RBD) to create a commercially acceptable product. The refining process uses hydrochloric acid, solvents and steam to strip out the contamination. Some residual solvents remain in the oil. The process also removes the natural volatilizes and anti-oxidants that give pure coconut oil its unique flavour and aroma. The total process from farm to refined oil can take many months. The residual copra-meal is only suitable as animal feed but, even here, care is required because it can be contaminated with carcinogenic aflatoxins.
The tropical world has over one billion coconut palms, producing over 50 billion coconuts each year. Yet, because of the low income earned on the world market from coconut products, many coconut groves are run down, with nuts and old trees lying where they fall.
With fluctuating copra prices, farmers only harvest the nuts when prices are high or when they are in desperate need of cash. For many remote islands with plenty of coconuts, copra is still a risky venture because of the infrequency of shipping services.
Technically, based on the research writings about the subject, true virgin oil would be extracted and purified without using high temperature and with no chemical or physical refining. Any coconut oil made from copra does not fit under these guidelines.
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