The difference between VCO and CO coconut oil

Coconut is a perennial evergreen tree of the palm family Monocotyledon you, and is a typical tropical woody oil crop. Approximately 87% of the coconut cultivation area is home to member countries of the Asia-Pacific Community (APCC). Indonesia and the Philippines account for 32.4% and 27.5% of the world's cultivated area, respectively. Southeast Asia is not only a coconut producing region, but also a major producer of coconut oil in the world. Indonesia is the largest producer of coconut oil, and the Philippines is the largest exporter of coconut oil and the largest producer of virgin coconut oil (VCO). Other countries with large coconut oil production are India, Malaysia, Vietnam; Mexico in South America, Tanzania and Ghana in Africa also produce a certain amount of coconut oil.

1. Fatty acid composition and properties of coconut oil

Dried coconut generally contains 63% oil and coconut meat contains 33% oil. The fatty acids in coconut oil, 90%-94% of the composition is saturated fatty acids. Contains a larger amount of low-carbon fatty acids. Due to the high composition of low-carbon fatty acids in coconut oil, the melting point of glycerides is low, and coconut is digested to facilitate the absorption of nutrients. The fatty acid composition of coconut oil is low unsaturated, the oil is more stable and has a good storage shelf life.

2. The main processing methods of coconut oil

The processing of coconut oil has two kinds of processes: dry and wet.

The traditional dry process is to make the coconut meat into dried coconut first, and then pressed with an oil press. In recent years, the dry process has developed into a combination of cold pressing and solvent extraction method. The resulting coconut oil usually has a bad odor and is not of high quality.

Modern wet process is to use mechanical or natural methods, after or without heating, without chemical refining, bleaching, deodorization, directly from the fresh mature coconut meat to get oil. This coconut oil is also called natural coconut oil or virgin coconut oil (VCO) international market price is about 5000 USD/T. The export price of common coconut oil (CO) is about 1100~1500 USD/T.

CO is the dry method, where most of the water is removed from the coconut meat to make dried coconut. High temperatures may inactivate trace components in CO such as VE, tocotriene glycerides and polyphenolic compounds, and the resulting coconut oil needs to be refined, resulting in a large loss of nutrients and flavor.

The wet process extracts VCO from coconut milk under controlled temperature conditions and can be consumed directly without refining treatment. This processing does not change the natural nature of coconut oil, and the unique coconut flavor of VCO is incomparable to any flavoring. The high speed centrifuge required for the wet processing of VCO for large scale industrial production costs more than $40,000 per unit, which is a large investment in equipment.

3. Coconut oil applications and market prospects

Coconut oil is mainly used in the fields of food, medicine, detergent and biofuel.

VCO has a variety of functional products, and the production cost is not high, in the food, pharmaceutical and chemical industry oil broad development and space. 1) In terms of consumer demand, it can be used as functional food and oil machine food ingredients . 2) As a supplement to natural or synthetic drugs, improve human immunity, lower cholesterol ratio, antibacterial, anti-toxic, anti-cancer . 3) It can be applied to beauty series, hair care products, essential oils.