About Chennamma Ajji

Pure goodness, just like Ajji made

Chennamma Ajji began with a simple frustration. The oil on supermarket shelves did not taste like the oil we grew up with. It was paler, thinner, and it smelled of nothing at all.

Somewhere between our grandmother's kitchen and the modern aisle, oil had stopped being food and started being a commodity — bleached, deodorised, chemically extracted, engineered for shelf life rather than for the person eating it.

So we went back to the way she did it.

How our oil is made

Every bottle we sell is cold pressed. That means the seed is crushed slowly, without external heat, and nothing is added or taken away afterwards.

Sourcing. We buy seed directly from farmers in Karnataka. Groundnut, sesame, niger, sunflower, safflower, mustard and coconut — selected by grade, not by price alone.
Cleaning. Seed is cleaned and sorted by hand before it goes anywhere near the press.
Slow pressing. The press turns slowly by design. Slow rotation means low friction, and low friction means the oil never gets hot. No solvents. No hexane. No chemical extraction of any kind.
Settling and filtering. The oil rests and settles naturally, then passes through a simple filter. We do not bleach it and we do not deodorise it.
Small batches. We press in small quantities so that what reaches you is fresh, not warehoused.

This is a slower and more expensive way to make oil. It yields less from the same quantity of seed. We think the result is worth it.

What we will not do

No chemical or solvent extraction
No bleaching or deodorising
No preservatives or additives
No artificial colour
No blending of cheaper oils

If an oil looks dark, smells strongly of its seed, and settles a little at the bottom — that is what unrefined oil is supposed to do.

Certified and accountable

Chennamma Ajji is certified by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India under licence number 1122632300006. You can verify that licence yourself on the FSSAI FoSCoS portal. We print it on every label because we think you should be able to check.

More than 8,600 customers have reviewed our oils, at an average of 4.65 out of 5.

Made in Karnataka, for Karnataka kitchens

Our seed comes from Karnataka farmers and most of our customers cook Karnataka food. That shapes what we make. Our niger oil exists because North Karnataka households need it for ennegayi and jolada rotti — it is not a product you will find in most national brands' ranges.

We ship across India, but the recipes we cook for are the ones we grew up eating.