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Are there flakes in your oil? Does it look like there are little clouds in your oil? Does your oil look cloudy? Then your oil is cold! When the temperature of an oil drops, an oil can become cloudy. The oil is then ‘frozen’. This does not look the same as water that freezes, but the oil becomes cloudy. With oils we do not call it freezing, but solidifying! In this blog you can read more about the solidifying of oils.
Many people have at some point ordered coconut oil and most are aware that coconut oil is hard at cold temperatures and liquid at warmer temperatures. Coconut oil has a melting point of about 25 degrees and, in our cold little corner of the world, is therefore more often coconut fat than a liquid oil.
But did you know that there are more oils that solidify? We often receive questions such as: Why are there white flakes in my oil? My oil is not completely liquid, what should I do? We will answer that for you today!
There are various reasons why oils can solidify; this mainly has to do with the composition and processing method of an oil.
Oils contain fatty acids. These crystallise when they cool down. This is because the molecules in the oil move and attach to one another as the oil cools. The speed at which the oils solidify depends on the composition of the oil.
When an oil consists mainly of saturated fats, it is more prone to solidifying than oils with a higher content of unsaturated
fats. Coconut oil, for example, contains a lot of saturated fats and therefore solidifies more quickly at lower temperatures. Oils with a lot of unsaturated fats are, for example, Grape Seed Oil or Almond Oil, so you will not often come across these oils solidified!
Most oils consist of various oil acids, each with its own freezing temperature. When part of the fatty acids is ‘frozen’ and part is not, you will see this in your bottle as whitish clouds. If the temperature drops even further, the whole bottle will be cloudy. The oil takes on a solid form and is then difficult to get out of the bottle!
Don't worry, the solidifying of the oil does no harm and has no effect on the quality and nutritional value of the oil. When an oil has not become cloudy at the freezing temperature, this actually says something about a reduced quality of the oil!
You can make the oil liquid again by briefly placing the bottle on the heater or holding it under the warm tap/placing it in a bowl of warm water.
Sometimes it can be the case that the oil has been kept cold during delivery. Some oils already solidify below 20 degrees and may therefore have hardened.
Coconut oil: 25°C
Monoï de Tahiti: 25°C
Krappa Oil: 22°C
Tamanu Oil: 21°C
Neem oil: 15°C
Jojoba Oil: 10°C
Avocado Oil: 8°C
Vitamin E (full spectrum): 3°C
Moringa Oil: 0°C
Marula Oil: 0°C
Rice Bran Oil: 5°C
Olive oil: -6°C.
Castor oil: -10°C.
Bay Laurel oil 5°C
Borage oil 5°C
Argan oil 7°C
Yes, Essential oils and CO2 extracts can also solidify. Peppermint Essential oil, for example, solidifies at a temperature of 10 degrees. These oils and extracts can also be warmed up briefly before use, without loss of quality.
In the cold winter months, it is handy to store the oil in a warmer place.
Written by: Helena Laarman
