Crude, cold pressed or refined sunflower oil: what buyers should know

Three names, one seed

In the sunflower oil trade, the words crude, cold pressed and refined describe how far the oil has been processed after it leaves the seed. Crude oil is the raw product of pressing, and sometimes of solvent extraction, that has not been refined. Cold pressed oil is a special kind of unrefined oil, pressed without added heat and sold for its taste and natural content. Refined oil has gone through a series of purification steps that make it clear, neutral and stable.

The confusion starts because people use the words loosely. A retail shopper may call any unrefined oil cold pressed, while a refinery buyer uses crude to mean feedstock that still has to be processed. For a B2B buyer, the distinction matters, because each grade comes with its own specification, price and shelf life.

Below we go through how each grade is made, how they compare, and what to put in the contract.

How crude sunflower oil is made

Sunflower seeds are first cleaned of stones, dust and plant material, then partly or fully dehulled. The kernels are crushed and rolled into flakes, which expose more surface for pressing. Mechanical screw presses squeeze out the oil, and the oil is filtered to remove solid particles.

In large plants the seed is often conditioned with heat before pressing, which raises the yield, and the press cake may then go through solvent extraction to recover the remaining oil. Pressed and extracted oil are often combined and sold as crude oil. The result is a cloudy, golden to amber oil with a seedy taste, natural phospholipids, waxes, free fatty acids and pigments.

Crude oil is mainly a raw material. Refineries, food processors that run their own refining, and some feed and biodiesel producers buy it in bulk. Our crude sunflower oil is obtained by mechanical pressing and filtration, and the same process is used for our rapeseed and soybean oils.

What makes an oil cold pressed

Cold pressed oil is pressed mechanically without external heat being applied to the seed or the press. The Codex standard for named vegetable oils describes cold pressed oils as those obtained by mechanical procedures only, without heat, and allows only washing, settling, filtering and centrifuging as cleaning steps. Pressing still creates some frictional warmth, so producers keep the press slow and the oil temperature low.

Without heat, the press recovers less oil from the seed, which is one reason cold pressed oil costs more. In return it keeps more of the natural flavour, colour and vitamin E (tocopherols) of the seed. It smells and tastes clearly of sunflower seeds, may form a light sediment and can turn cloudy in the cold. These are normal features, not defects.

The same features limit its use. Cold pressed sunflower oil has a low smoke point and a shorter shelf life than refined oil, so it is used for salads, dressings, cold dishes and finishing rather than frying. It sells to health food retail, delicatessen ranges and manufacturers who want a natural label.

What refining removes

Refining turns crude oil into a clear, neutral product with a long shelf life. Degumming removes phospholipids with water or acid. Neutralisation uses an alkali to turn free fatty acids into soapstock, which is separated off. Bleaching with bleaching earth takes out pigments, traces of metals and oxidation products. Deodorisation strips away volatile compounds with steam under vacuum at high temperature.

Sunflower oil gets one more step that many other oils do not need: winterisation. The seed contains natural waxes, which make oil cloudy when it is cold. Slowly cooling the oil lets the waxes crystallise so they can be filtered out, and the finished oil stays clear on a cold shelf or in a refrigerated kitchen.

The result is refined sunflower oil: light, clear, almost without smell or taste, with a high smoke point. Some of the vitamin E is lost in deodorisation, but the oil remains a good source of it.

The three grades side by side

Typical characteristics. Exact figures depend on the seed, the process and the contract specification.

Which grade suits which buyer

Refineries and bottlers buy crude oil because refining is where they add value. They watch the price closely and judge the oil by free fatty acids, moisture and impurities, phosphorus and colour, which all affect refining losses and costs. For them, consistent crude quality from lot to lot is worth as much as the price per tonne.

Retail chains and distributors mostly sell refined oil, because shoppers expect a clear bottle that can be used for everything from frying to baking. A smaller cold pressed SKU can sit next to it for customers who want flavour or a natural product. Restaurants and caterers use refined oil, often a specialised frying oil, for the fryer, and cold pressed oil for salads if the menu calls for it.

Food manufacturers choose by application. Mayonnaise, sauces, margarine and bakery need a neutral refined oil; snack and frying lines need stability; a premium dressing or a natural spread may use cold pressed oil for its taste.

Storage and handling are different too

The three grades also ask for different care after delivery. Crude oil in bulk tanks should be refined within a reasonable time, because free fatty acids and oxidation products keep rising in storage and push up refining losses. Tanks should be clean, closed and not heated more than needed to keep the oil pumpable.

Cold pressed oil is the most delicate. Light, warmth and air all shorten its life, so it is best kept cool and dark, in full containers with little headspace, and sold through quickly. Dark glass or opaque packaging is common for retail packs, and many producers press in smaller batches to keep the stock fresh.

Refined oil is the easiest to handle. Bottled refined oil keeps for up to 24 months at 6 to 30 °C, which suits long supply chains, export and warehouse stock. Even so, it should be stored away from direct sun and heat sources, and older stock should leave the warehouse first.

What to check in a specification

For crude oil, agree the acid value or free fatty acid level, moisture and volatile matter, insoluble impurities and phosphorus content, plus the sampling and analysis method. Buyers who refine also look at wax content, because it affects winterisation. For cold pressed oil, add sensory requirements and the acid and peroxide values that the destination market applies to cold pressed oils.

For refined oil, the usual parameters are acid value, peroxide value, colour, moisture and a cold test to confirm that winterisation worked. Bottled oil also needs the label details and the best before period agreed. Ask for a certificate of analysis for every lot and keep a retained sample.

Our laboratory tests incoming seeds, monitors each stage of processing and checks the finished crude, refined and bottled oils, so the analysis comes with each shipment. Detailed limits are fixed in the contract specification.

How we supply each grade

We grow, store and process sunflower, rapeseed and soybean seeds in Ukraine. Our facilities handle 390,000 tonnes of seed a year and produce 109,000 tonnes of crude and 99,000 tonnes of refined vegetable oil. Sunflower oil accounts for 67,000 tonnes of our annual oil capacity. Crude and refined oils travel in bulk by tank truck, about 24 tonnes per load, or in flexi bags in 20' containers.

If you need oil for your own refinery, start with our crude oils, including cold pressed rapeseed oil and crude soybean oil. If you sell to consumers or kitchens, refined oil is available in bulk or bottled in PET from 850 ml to 10 L through our private label bottling services.