About

Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil

While the benefits of rapeseed oil are becoming increasingly well known, it is important to note that not all rapeseed oils are the same.

Refined rapeseed oil can be found in many mixed vegetable oils and is used in a wide variety of prepared foods and ready meals. This oil is worlds apart from the oil we produce however, refined oils are produced from seeds that are crushed at high temperatures, with solvents used to remove every last drop of oil from the seed. The oil is then distilled to remove the solvent, bleached to remove the colour, then treated with a mix of chemicals to remove the flavour and odour. The result is an oil that is indistinguishable from any other oil; an oil with none of the character of natural, pure rapeseed oil.

The alternative to refined rapeseed oil is cold pressed rapeseed oil, which is produced by gently pressing rapeseed at room temperature. Oleifera is a cold pressed rapeseed oil. It is cold pressed (taken from the first gentle pressing of the seed) with no chemicals or heat used in the extraction process. We simply press, filter, bottle, label and package on site, ready to be sent to our suppliers.

Even in the world of cold pressed rapeseed oils, not all oils are the same. The secret of the fabulous colour, quality and texture of Oleifera is in the variety of rapeseed we use and the care we take in growing, harvesting and storing the precious seed before it is ready for pressing. 

The importance of variety

There are hundreds of varieties of rapeseed available worldwide. Some of these are better yielding, some are suited to particular soil types, whilst others grow best in particular climates. Amazingly, no variety is advertised at tasting great. This is because almost all rapeseed grown worldwide is refined before it is used, meaning that the taste of the oil isn’t important (because it would be removed in the refining process anyway).

With taste, we had to start from scratch. We spent two years trialling as many rapeseed varieties as we could to try and find ‘the one’. It was amazing how much the taste and scent varied between varieties. Some oils tasted like cabbage, whilst others tasted nuttier, and others were entirely bland. We even managed to find some varieties that coloured orange, red, even pink – keep your eyes peeled for this one on the shelves around Valentines Day!

After much tasting and smelling we came up with a shortlist of fourteen, ready for a thorough testing. Professional chefs and experienced cooks were brought in to sift through the subtly different flavours of the oils, and after much discussion, two oils we chosen as favourites.

For the following year, both varieties were grown in parallel, to see how they coped in the borders. Both seeds performed well, but one came out on top as being consistently the best tasting. This variety is now our favoured variety and is grown on all of our farms.

This is not the end of the story though. We can’t sit back and relax. Seed varieties gradually change over time and we know that eventually our variety won’t be the same as it is today. So we are on the hunt for other varieties once more, hoping to stumble on a variety that produces even better oil than today – it’s going to have to be a very special variety, as Oleifera will take some beating!

Going the Extra Mile

The flavour, colour and scent of our oil is very important to us. To make sure that every bottle of Oleifera is just right, quality control is key. This process doesn’t just start in the bottling line, it begins before the rapeseed crop is even planted.

Before planting begins, the field is prepared for the new crop. The land is destoned, the remnants of the previous crop are ploughed back in and any potentially troublesome weeds are removed. Our farmers take particular care at this point in the growing cycle, preparing their fields properly can make all the difference in producing a great quality seed.

Once prepared, the field is then planted with the rapeseed crop; this usually happens in mid-September. The unique flavour of Oleifera rapeseed is largely down to the variety, so our farmers take great care in ensuring only seeds of the right variety are used.

In the early stages of growth, rapeseed is very hungry. To produce seeds with the right mix of oils, it is vital that the plant can get the right amount of sunlight; this is only possible if it has enough foliage early on, so keeping it fed is important. Throughout the winter and spring our farmers continually monitor the progress of their crop and provide it with the balance of nutrients it requires, just at the point it is needed.

Towards the end of summer, the plant starts to die back and the pods that carry the seeds start to become brittle. By the end of July they are so brittle that it takes very little shaking to knock out the seeds; this is the ideal time to harvest the crop. Picking the right time to harvest is an art. If you harvest too early, the seeds will not be mature enough and will taste bitter. If you harvest too late, the seeds might have started to sprout and won’t contain much oil. These concerns also have to be balanced against the weather; harvesting a wet crop will mean that the seed will have to be dried before it can be stored.

Once the seed is harvested, it is stored. Seed destined for Oleifera is kept entirely separate from all other rapeseed grown on the farms, to ensure that it is not contaminated with any another rapeseed variety that might spoil its delicate flavour. Whilst in store, the seed is monitored continually to make sure it is not too wet or too dry, seed that is stored at the wrong moisture content does not have the same shelf life.

When we’re ready to press the seed, we bring it into the pressing plant from the store. Seed is only brought in from store when it is needed to prevent double handling. Before we start pressing the seed, it must first pass through a particularly exacting collection of quality parameters; this includes oil content, moisture content, seed maturity, weed contamination, along with auditing the provenance of the seed. Only seed that makes it through this quality control procedure will make it through to pressing. Any seed that doesn’t make the grade will be sent off to larger oil producers to create mixed vegetable oils.

Oil that comes straight off the presses always contains some of the flesh and husk of the seed itself. The husk of the seed is particularly bitter, so this has to be removed before the oil is bottled. Other producers simply let this residue settle out before bottling, but this can never remove the finest particles of sediment. To be absolutely sure that our oil is as pure as possible, we filter this sediment out. We filter our oil a total of 6 times before we bottle it; we start with a coarse filter and gradually use ever-finer filters, so as to be as gentle as possible with the oil. Our final filter can remove particles that are smaller than one-thousandth of a millimetre, our oil couldn’t be any more pure if we tried!

Once filtered, our oil is pumped straight into bottles and containers, before being capped or corked and then labelled. All of this happens in our purpose built bottling facility. This is a white-walled clean area, the perfect environment for bottling an oil as pure as Oleifera. As testament to our production standards, our bottling line is Safe and Local Supplier Approval (SALSA) accredited. This accreditation is reviewed and renewed annually, to ensure that we’re always up to standard.