From seed to bottle
Cold pressing is not complicated. That is rather the point. Here is exactly what happens to a seed before it becomes a bottle of Chennamma Ajji oil.
1. Sourcing the seed
We buy directly from farmers in Karnataka rather than through commodity traders. Buying direct means we know the grade and the season, and we can reject a lot that is not good enough. Our mustard is A1 grade. Our niger and groundnut are locally sourced.
2. Cleaning and sorting
Seed arrives with stones, dust, husk and damaged kernels mixed in. It is cleaned and sorted before pressing. Damaged or mouldy seed produces bitter oil that spoils faster, so this unglamorous step decides much of the final quality.
3. Cold pressing
The seed goes into the press whole. The press turns slowly — slow rotation is the entire mechanism, because speed creates friction and friction creates heat. Kept slow, the oil stays below roughly 50°C throughout.
Nothing is added at this stage. No solvent, no hexane, no heat applied from outside. The seed is simply crushed until the oil comes out.
This is why cold pressing yields less oil per kilogram than solvent extraction. Some oil stays behind in the cake. We accept that trade-off.
4. Natural settling
Fresh-pressed oil is cloudy with fine seed particles. Rather than force it through industrial filtration, we let it stand and settle naturally. Gravity does the work.
5. Simple filtering
The settled oil passes through a basic filter to remove remaining sediment. It is not bleached to remove colour. It is not steamed at high temperature to remove smell. Both of those steps are standard in refining and both strip out the vitamin E, antioxidants and flavour compounds that were in the seed.
That is why our oil is amber rather than pale, and why it smells like what it came from.
6. Small batch bottling
Unrefined oil is perishable — that is a consequence of leaving the good parts in. We press in small batches so bottles do not sit in a warehouse losing freshness. Use within three to six months of opening, stored somewhere cool and dark.
What we never use
| Step | Industrial refining | Chennamma Ajji |
|---|---|---|
| Extraction | Hexane solvent | Mechanical pressing only |
| Heat | Up to 250°C | Below 50°C |
| Bleaching | Clay filtration | None |
| Deodorising | High-pressure steam | None |
| Preservatives | Commonly added | None |
| Colour | Sometimes added | None |
Certification
FSSAI licence number 1122632300006. Verifiable on the FSSAI FoSCoS portal. Printed on every bottle we sell.