What Is Cold Pressed Oil and How It Is Made (2026)

Last updated: 16 September 2026

Quick Answer: Cold pressed oil is oil pressed mechanically from seeds or nuts without added heat or chemical solvents. Friction still warms the seed, so cold means no heat is applied, not that no heat occurs. In India the label is defined only for mustard oil, through a 0.20 percent allyl isothiocyanate threshold rather than a temperature limit.

The international definition is narrower than the marketing. The FAO and WHO Codex standard for named vegetable oils says at clause 2.2.3 that cold pressed oils are obtained by mechanical procedures only, without the application of heat, then purified by washing, settling and filtering.

In India, two of the three words on a mustard oil bottle are testable and one is not. "Kachi Ghani" and "Cold Pressed" share one condition in the national standard. "Wood pressed" appears nowhere in it, so the word SatRas prints on its tins is the undefined one.

What happens to the seed before it reaches the press?

The aspects that determine the quality of a cold pressed oil get resolved before the press is ever processed. Mustard oil is defined as oil derived from healthy and clean mustard seeds according to the Indian standard.

Moisture is the variable buyers never hear about. Penn State Extension puts the ideal pressing range at 7 to 8 percent, canola at 6 to 8. Seed that is too wet gives gummy meal and little oil. Seed that is too dry drives the press head hotter, making the 120°F ceiling harder to hold and cutting the yield.

Variety decides fat composition before any of this. SatRas grows the Raya Hisar 1706 variety from CCSHAU on its own farms in Hisar, Haryana, for its high oleic mustard oil. Its black oil is farmer-sourced in Rajasthan and Haryana.

What are the stages of cold pressing, from crush to bottle?

The five stages of cold pressing only use the press during one of the stages. After seed cleaning and moisture conditioning, the seeds are crushed using a screw press or by a ghani, which is a mortar and pestle known as the kolhu or chekku. Through this process, oil is extracted while solids are released as the cake.

Purification is where Codex gets specific. A cold pressed oil may be purified by washing with water, settling, filtering and centrifuging only. Nothing is bleached or deodorised, and no food additives are permitted.

Yields are modest by design: roughly a third of canola seed weight leaves as oil. The 49°C ceiling producers cite is convention, not law, and SatRas states extraction below it for its yellow mustard oil, pressed in a wooden kolhu with an imli wood core. All four extraction methods are compared in our guide to what kachi ghani means and whether it is cold pressed.

What does the cold pressed label actually guarantee in India?

It guarantees one measured compound, on one oil. Note 2 under clause 6 of the FSSAI standards for fats and oils reads that the oil may be labelled Kachi Ghani or Cold Pressed if natural allyl isothiocyanate is not less than 0.20 percent by weight, wording introduced by the twelfth amendment of 2018. One threshold, both words, so in Indian law the two labels are interchangeable for mustard oil.

Read the clause for what it leaves out. It sets no maximum pressing temperature, names no press and requires no kolhu. Allyl isothiocyanate is what makes mustard oil sting and refining strips it out, so the threshold is a proxy for unrefined oil, not a rule about method.

Across the rest of that chapter "cold pressed" appears once more, in the peroxide value regulation, naming a category without defining it. "Expeller pressed" is absent too. Worth saying plainly: wood pressed accurately describes a hardwood kolhu, and no Indian authority tests it.

How does cold pressed oil differ from refined oil?

The difference is what happens after the press, not what the fat is made of. The ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition Dietary Guidelines for Indians describe crude oils going through a chemical refining series that strips odour and extends shelf life, and record that antioxidants and phytosterols go with them, "without altering the fatty acid composition".

That last clause is the one to hold on to. Pressing does not change an oil's saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated split; seed and variety set that before anything is crushed. Codex agrees from the other side, allowing refined oils an acid value of 0.6 mg KOH per gram and cold pressed oils 4.0.

Which cold pressed oil benefits are supported by evidence?

The defensible benefits are about what survives, not what is added. A 2026 systematic review in Frontiers in Nutrition reports higher levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids, antioxidants, vitamins and other bioactives than refined oils, and cites work putting antioxidant losses during refining at 20 to 80 percent. Flavour and colour are the other real difference, both following from skipping deodorisation. The boundary is that low-temperature pressing limits nutrient degradation; it cannot create nutrients, and the same review names the absence of standardisation and of clinical validation as open gaps.

Can you fry in cold pressed oil?

Yes for everyday Indian cooking, with two qualifications. The first is heat. Unrefined oils keep the free fatty acids that refining removes, and those smoke earlier, which is why the permitted acid value for a cold pressed oil sits nearly seven times higher. Where mustard oil falls is in our note on mustard oil's smoke point.

The second is quantity. Repeated deep frying degrades any oil, and reusing it does more damage than the pressing method ever did. ICMR-NIN limits visible fat to 20 to 50 g per person per day by activity level, and 27 to 30 g for a 2000 kcal diet.

What do the published numbers actually show?

Oil, per 100 g	Saturated fat	MUFA	PUFA	Source
Mustard oil, generic	11.6 g	59.2 g	21.2 g	USDA FDC 172337
SatRas yellow mustard oil	4.9 g	72.6 g	22.4 g	SatRas yellow oil page
SatRas black mustard oil	8.2 g	60.1 g	31.7 g	SatRas black oil page
SatRas high oleic mustard oil	7.8 g	60.2 g	29.1 g	SatRas high oleic page

The USDA does not differentiate cold pressed from refined mustard oil, which uses an extraction methodology that isolates the fatty acid. The differences among the three SatRas mustard oils, pressed in the same kolhu arise from the seeds instead of from press.

USDA gives 11.6 g oleic and 41.2 g erucic per 100 g for generic mustard oil; SatRas publishes 25.75 g and 23.85 g for its high oleic oil, from the NIFTEM report shown there. Neither is published for the black or yellow oils, and that gap stays open.

What cold pressing does not do

It does not remove the oil. ICMR-NIN mentions that cold pressed oil have unwanted substances similar to crude oil: free fatty acids, gums, waxes, phospholipids, hydrocarbons, pesticide residues, aflatoxins and allergens.

It does not make the oil more stable. India's peroxide value regulation allows refined oils 10 milliequivalents of active oxygen per kg and cold pressed oils 15, so the standard expects a cold pressed oil to be further along the oxidation curve at sale. Dark glass or tin and a cool shelf matter more here.

It does not change the calories. USDA puts mustard oil at 884 kcal per 100 g.

Erucic acid deserves the same directness. FSSAI keeps a separate low erucic acid standard capped at 2 percent of total fatty acids, and ordinary mustard oil sits far above it. The 23.85 g above is roughly half the 40 to 50 g typical of regular mustard oil, a comparison between two mustard oils rather than entry into that category.

This article is educational and is not medical advice. For dietary guidance, speak to a qualified healthcare professional.

Frequently asked questions

What do people use cold pressed oil for?

Mostly everyday cooking, where the surviving flavour is the point: tempering, sautéing, pickling, dressings and finishing. Some varieties are also used traditionally for hair and body massage. Unrefined oils keep their aroma and colour, so they change how a dish tastes.

Which seeds and nuts can be cold pressed?

Almost any oil-bearing seed, kernel, nut or fruit. Mustard and rapeseed, groundnut, sesame, coconut, sunflower, flaxseed, olive and pumpkin seed are pressed commercially this way. The limits are practical, not botanical: oil content, seed hardness and moisture decide whether a press works without added heat.

What machine is used to make cold pressed oil?

Two designs dominate. A screw press, or expeller, drives a rotating screw that forces seed through a slotted cage until oil escapes. A ghani, also called a kolhu or chekku, is a mortar and pestle whose heavy vertical pestle turns inside a stone or wooden bowl.

Is cold pressed oil good for hair?

Several unrefined oils, mustard and coconut among them, have long traditional use in hair and scalp oiling in India. That is customary use rather than proven outcome, and published evidence for hair benefits from any pressing method is thin. Patch test first, since unrefined oils can irritate skin.

Does cold pressed oil help with weight loss?

No. All culinary oils are close to 884 kcal per 100 g, and pressing method does not change that. India's national nutrition guidelines cap visible fat at 20 to 50 g per person per day by activity level. Switching oils without cutting quantity changes nothing.

What is the Hindi name for cold pressed oil?

Kachi ghani tel is the phrase used, and India's national nutrition guidelines print it beside the English term. Kachi means raw or uncooked and ghani is the traditional press. Mustard oil itself is sarso ka tel, and on a label the two terms carry the same meaning.