Cold Pressed vs Refined Oil

Fats are too complicated to subject to try and cover in a single reel, so there will be more videos on the different doubts that people have about cooking oils. This one covers one of the most common dilemmas - Cold pressed vs Refined oils

Cold pressed oils tend to be more aromatic and may include some of the beneficial antioxidant molecules from the plant source. BUT, it’s important to remember that anything that is not a fat (a triglyceride) will burn at high temperatures. If you are going to pay a lot of extra money for a cold pressed oil, you’d be wasting it using it for high temperature cooking methods like finishing tadka or deep frying (cold pressed mustard oil is an exception). On top of that, if the oil is not properly filtered, some of the non-fat plant matter will burn into not-so-healthy by-products.

This is why we refine oils. Some sources of oils like sunflower simply cannot be cold-pressed because the oil will not be suitable for human consumption without refining. Refined oils go through an elaborate filtering and chemical treatment process that removes everything other than fats. Some of these solvents (like Hexane) are not good for health, but the right question to ask is - how much of it ends up in the actual oil. FSSAI has standards for what is the maximum allowed ppm (parts per million) amount of hexane and there have been studies showing that most well-known brands of refined oil do not have statistically significant amounts of hexane in them.

Verdict: Use the right oil for the right situation. Cold-pressed for low temperature, light sauteing uses where the aroma of the oil is important to the dish. Refined oils in high temperature situations (like finishing tadka and deep frying) and where the oil needs to be neutral tasting so that the flavour of other ingredients stands out.