FAQ's
Why it's important to know where you coconut oil comes from?
We believe there are two facts everyone should know about Coconut Oil before they buy, how it is produced? and what is the moisture content?
Coconut Oil is considered to be a food grade product for import purposes whether it is imported in bulk or packaged ready to sell. In our search for a supplier we were looking to a low carbon footprint so the Pacific Islands made sense, With a simple internet search you may see pictures of some locals standing around a long barbecue plate under a wooden shelter with no walls, this is common practice for pacific start ups, but surprisingly producers in India and Shrilanka aren't much better. They do have corrugated iron sheds but windows are covered but concrete reinforcing steel sheets, again with a big barbecue plate. In most cases it appears there is a dirt floor and machinery used to press the oil has rust on them etc. Not entirely sanitary production processes so our advice is to check the source before you buy and ensure you are getting a quality product.
The barbecue plate method for drying the coconut shavings can be a bit hit and miss, dry it too less and the oil contains a high moisture content (which can make the oil go rancid reducing the self life), dry it too much and the white shaving start to yellow/brown and this affects the colour of the oil and also the raw/virgin status which should not see the oil heated over 30oC.
In contrast our supplier has an HACCP rated production facility following NZ standards for food safety guidelines for production, they also use a vacuum evaporation method where they place the oil in a container and then suck the air out to create a vacuum, which evaporates the water out of the oil at room temperature, they then have quality control to ensure low moisture content using a hydrometer, this results in a higher grade Raw Virgin Cold Pressed Coconut Oil with a long shelf life. We import the oil in 1000L containers and the repackage in a A-Grade commercial Kitchen.
Where is your coconut oil sourced from?
We are the
exclusive NZ distributor for Taste of Tonga Coconut Oil products produced
by Jones Enterprises in Vavau Tonga.
The coconuts are sourced from Vavau and neighbouring islands, which have no
history of pesticide use, Jones enterprise has Organic and Fair trade
certifications and the operation is run as sustainable as possible and to
benefit the economy of Tonga
If you are interested in learning more please see this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3nEH2Bs0gE
What do the terms Raw, Virgin and Organic mean for Coconut Oil?
Raw coconut oil is considered by most as oil that has not been heated over 30OC. Natures finest Coconut Oil is cold pressed with no added heat.
Virgin coconut
oil has been pressed from coconuts and has not undergone any further refining.
Coconut oil can be processed by several methods, but the process used for our
coconut oil involves the oil being pressed out using mechanical methods, from
the fresh meat of coconuts. Any excess water in the oil is then removed by
warming the coconut meat at a low heat to ensure the benefits are not altered
in any way. This method produces the highest quality of coconut oil.
Organic means the Coconuts used in producing the coconut oil are collected from palms that are not treated in any way with pesticides or any other chemicals. The coconuts used to produce our oil are collected from organically grown palms on the tropical Tongan Islands. Vava'u has not history of pesticides or any other chemicals.
Our supplier was organically certified in June 2015, Oil with production date prior to this date can be classed as organically grown, oil produced after this date is organically certified.
What do you use for packaging?
We only use glass jars or BPA (bisphenol A) and BPS (bisphenol S) free plastic pales. All our containers are food grade containers.