The popularity of coconut oil has skyrocketed in recent years. It seems as though everyone is starting to realize what traditional South Pacific cultures with virtually no heart disease knew for centuries: coconut oil is one of the healthiest fats on the planet and is a boon to health when plentiful amounts are present in the diet.
Even Dr. Oz recommends coconut oil. When a TV medical doctor is extolling the virtues of coconut oil, you know it has well and truly gone mainstream!
The problem is that good quality virgin coconut oil is not particularly inexpensive. And with more and more budget conscious families demanding coconut oil, the big box wholesalers like Costco have been faced with a dilemma – how best to capitalize on the coconut oil frenzy while keeping the price dirt cheap.
I’ll admit that I’ve been suspicious of the big box wholesaler brands of coconut oil for quite awhile. The price just didn’t jive with the price I knew to be necessary to ensure a quality, pure product.
It seems that evidence is now emerging that my suspicions have been justified.
Mary M. messaged me on my Facebook page just yesterday complaining about the big jar of Costco coconut oil (picture above). She writes:
“I just opened and began using a big container of coconut oil (got it at Costco) that I’ve had for maybe 3 months and it has sat on my pantry shelf (outside in my garage, I live in Texas so it’s gotten hotter than 100 degrees).
It smells like burned marshmallows, or maybe the inside of a pumpkin on Halloween. Since I can’t find any web sites that describe the smell (other than “yucky” and “very, very bad”) for rancid coconut oil, could you please help me out? I can’t stand to put it on my face….but can I still cook with it?”
Absolutely not.
You don’t want to ever use, cook with, or put on your skin an oil that smells bad!
Mary’s email about her jar of Costco coconut oil raised two big red flags to me. First of all, I’ve been using coconut oil and virgin coconut oil for many years and I have never had it go off, even when kept for a year or two in my garage where the temperature easily reaches a 110-120F on humid August afternoons.
Coconut oil is an extremely stable oil and should never have gone bad such as what Mary M. experienced, provided it is pure, 100% coconut oil and it was filtered properly so that none of the coconut protein was left in the oil.
The second red flag about this Costco coconut oil was the wording of the label. There is no such thing as “extra virgin coconut oil”. It is either refined coconut oil or virgin coconut oil. A friend of mine who is the owner of a company that is a quality purveyor of virgin coconut oil had this to say:
“… any product that uses the term ‘extra virgin’ and it does not pertain to olive oil is using the term outside its definition… Trying to market something that does not exist.”
Does this mean use of the misleading term “extra virgin coconut oil” indicates an inferior product? Not necessarily. It is simply a red flag that further investigation to ensure a quality product is required particularly if the product is found on a shelf at Costco or other large retailer for a price that is too good to be true.
Why Inexpensive Costco Coconut Oil is Likely of Poor Quality
There are a couple of potential reasons why Mary M’s Costco coconut oil went bad.
First of all, it might not have been 100% pure coconut oil at all.
Not pure coconut oil? Not so far fetched. This is what the olive oil industry has been doing for years, blending cheaper oils with extra virgin olive oil and marketing it as pure extra virgin olive oil. Since the majority of the oil is indeed “pure” extra virgin, they get away with labeling it as such even though other cheaper usually rancid oils are present. However, what restaurants do is even worse. Most use “olive oil blends” for cooking that are actually 75% canola oil and only 25% olive oil. If you ask them what they use for cooking, most in my experience will simply respond “olive oil” even when this is not really true.
If Mary M’s Costco coconut oil had vegetable oils or cheaper hydrogenated palm oil blended in, even if organic and in small amounts, it would be prone to going off sitting in a hot pantry for a few months causing the entire jar to stink after awhile.
Another possibility is that the oil was improperly filtered and is inferior quality coconut oil subject to rancidity as a result. My friend mentioned earlier who is the owner of a company that sells quality virgin coconut oil had this to say when I asked him about Mary’s coconut oil problem and how it could possibly go rancid:
“The only thing I have seen is during the filtering process. If they run it too fast or do not change the filters, one can get pieces of coconut (protein) in the product. You will not see it other than with time you might see a slight change in color on the bottom of the container. And this product can culture at the bottom of the container and it will have a culture smell.”
Another friend who also owns a company that sells high quality virgin coconut oil had this to add:
“It is possible that it was not 100% Coconut Oil. However, I suspect that it was just very old oil and not fresh. Since there is so much demand for Coconut Oil, fresh lots will be sold for money and may not be available at discount stores.”
Was Mary’s Costco coconut oil cut with a small percentage of cheaper oils to boost manufacturer and/or coconut oil reseller profits, poorly filtered causing the coconut protein bits to “culture” the oil, or just old, manufacturer’s defect oil?
It’s anybody’s guess, but one thing is for sure. It was not fresh, high quality Grade A coconut oil. Good quality, pure coconut oil that has been properly filtered does not go bad in a hot 100F pantry even if in a plastic tub. Cheaply priced coconut oil at a discount store runs the risk of being old, improperly filtered (manufacturer’s defect) and not the best choice for your health.
Is it a high risk? Maybe, maybe not. There’s certainly not enough data to confirm one way or the other at this point. As for me, I’m personally not willing to trust a huge corporation to properly source my healthy fats – the fats that build my children’s brain and support their immune function.
The lesson to be learned from Mary’s experience from my perspective is that you get what you pay for whether it be coconut oil or any other food item. Buying coconut oil at Costco, Walmart or some other big box retailer that bases stocking decisions primarily on low price obtained via buying huge quantities at once is a big risk that what you get is going to be poor quality coconut oil that is either potentially blended with cheap oils or is a Grade B, poorly filtered product. Cheap oil that is subject to rancidity and loaded with free radicals risks your health.
It may look and smell fine when you open the jar, but the real test is does it stay looking and smelling fine in a hot pantry or garage after several months?
You can’t tell just by looking at it or tasting it that is 100% virgin coconut oil that has been properly filtered.
Just like with extra virgin olive oil, the only way to ensure a quality product is to buy from a quality small business, not a big box retailer like Costco that buys large amounts of inventory from manufacturers and dumps it on the consumer market at ultra cheap prices. While you may get a decent product for a cheap price some of the time, I personally am not willing to take the chance with my healthy fats – the most critical aspect of Traditional Diet – that it will be a quality purchase 100% of the time like what would happen if I bought from a small, trusted producer.
Anything can happen and frequently does as a food item makes its way through the Industrial Food Distribution System!
UPDATE: Since this article was published in June 2013, dozens of other consumers have emailed me with stories of rock bottom priced, poor quality coconut oil being purchased not just at Costco, but other Big Box retailers. Buyer beware!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
More Information
Coconut Oil May Not Be Right for You
MCT Oil: The Coconut Oil Dregs
I have been purchasing and using coconut oil for about 5 years. Earlier in 2013 my local costco started selling This Carrington Farms brand. I usually by in bulk over the internet so regardless that I was “stocked” I purchased a 54oz jug for I think 15.99 which was a considerable savings for me. Now I have purchased many different brands until settling on my previous fav. because of it’s light fluffy and fresh texture. Well the Carrington Farms taste and texture surpassed my favorite. I was so grateful for Costco bringing this to me at such a great price. So today when I read this post, I went to my cupboard and pulled my only open jar which is down to just the bottom 1/2 inch left. I smelled it again and tasted it which I get to do regularly as I use it for Oil pulling as well…and it was still great. But to be sure I called the 800 number on the container and asked for any response they might have because I have referred this oil to many of my friends and friends of friends because I just love it and I wanted to be confident that it was what it seems to be to me and that is 100% cold pressed coconut oil that is one of the freshest and best tasteing I have enjoyed. …I was 100% reassured as I was walked kindly and thoughtfully walked through the process from procurment to my table. ….I appreciate most of the posts from the healthyhomeeconomist and I get some really good information most of the time. But it is my respectful opinion that whatever happened to MaryM’s coconut oil was not what my experience is. Perhaps she used a dirty spoon…perhaps any number of things of which I will never know. But please if Costco reads this …DO NOT STOP SELLING CARRINGTON FARMS COCONUT OIL….IT IS WONDERFUL AND I LOVE IT AND COSTCO….
@ Kimberly, Wow, that’s a better price than my local Costco LOL Our Costco is currently selling Nutiva but I have 2 jars of Carrington Farms (Costco) on the pantry self as well as one jar of Nutiva (which I haven’t tried yet). I too appreciate the quality of product and service from Carrington Farms and Costco. YES, if Costco is reading this blog, and we know Carrington Farms has…please continue to bring us these lovely, wholesome products and great customer service.
“There are two different kinds of coconut oil: refined and unrefined. Refined is normally considered regular and it has virtually no coconut taste or aroma. Unrefined is normally considered virgin or extra virgin and it possesses a fresh coconut taste and aroma.
For the most health benefits coconut oil should be purchased in the unrefined or extra virgin form. It is even more beneficial to choose a variety that is organic and raw. Refined coconut oils can be treated with various chemicals, and processed with very high heat, thereby compromising the health benefits of this product.
Refined oils are cheaper, but the unrefined are worth the extra price.” info taken from Evolving Wellness
I wouldn’t store any oil in a plastic container, let alone in a place that was going to get that hot. Even the good oil I get from Wilderness family I transfer to jars. Its probably why the oil would go bad. Leaching from the plastic
I recalling reading that some coconut oil may contain mold and mycotoxins. I heard Dave Asprey, the Bulletproof guy, mention it in a video.
I quickly googled and found this:
…”One food that is not mentioned on the list is coconut oil. I want to point out that, while coconut oil is an
incredible food in terms of nutrition and taste, many coconut oils contain mycotoxins. This is because
they are commonly made with copras, or dried coconuts, which are often contaminated with mycotoxins.
So in order to fully enjoy the benefits of this coconut oil, you will want to be sure that you find a company
that uses only fresh coconuts to make their oil, like the Tropical Traditions virgin coconut oil on this site…”
http://www.vsan.org/pdf/Top-10-myco-toxic-foods.pdf
And in this video, it’s mentioned briefly: http://www.bulletproofexec.com/bulletproof-video-get-stable-energy-perform-better-by-avoiding-these/
That is a good video to watch about the whole mycotoxin issue anyway, in addition to the coconut oil discussion.
I have been getting my coconut oil from Trader Joe’s. It’s reasonably priced and easy to get. I do have some concerns about using this, but there are limits to how much I can spend. I can’t always buy the top top quality of every item. Always something…
One more link about mycotoxins: http://paleohacks.com/questions/117067/have-you-been-mycotoxined-mold-yeast-effects
I would also like to add that Costco may be a “big box store”, but they should not be lumped in with Walmart. They have very good practices in terms of how they treat employees (the polar opposite of Walmart), and they also tend to carry a lot of quality products. We’re intelligent enough to steer clear of the lesser quality products that they do carry.
I talked with Debbie at Carrington Farms this morning (800-505-9546) and she said that your comments were unfounded and that you never talked with her before publishing your blog about them and Costco. She talked with Costco and said that they are also “very concerned” about your comments. Debbie assured me that the coconuts are organically grown and they do not blend in other oils and the oil is filtered several times throughout the process. She said that the coconuts are processed within 4 days of being picked and the oil is “cold expeller pressed” to preserve the integrity of the product. At each step of the process, the oil is inspected and certified. They are certified with every certification that coconut oil can have. Additionally, they meet all government requirements and standards for their products. Furthermore, Costco audits every step of the process, from inspecting the groves in which the coconuts are grown, through the extraction and handling process, to the packaging, right to the store shelf. She told me that they can sell the coconut oil at a lower price at Costco because they will buy 60 truck loads at a time. She said that you can find their products at health food stores and other retailers at almost twice the price because smaller retailers can only buy small quantities. Personally, I have used Carrington Farms coconut oil with no problem, I previously used Nutiva and notice no difference between the two, including the “extra virgin” claim on the label. Sarah, I have followed your blog for awhile now and have appreciated your insights. I think you “stepped in it” on this one, though. You might want to contact Debbie and maybe even Costco and let your followers know the facts. Thanks for all the useful info you provide!
For whatever it is worth: I normally buy coconut oil from Tropical Traditions – different grades for different application – in the 5 gal. buckets. The first gold label (highest quality) bucket I bought was horrible smelling. I tried hiding it in food – no good. I tried using it on my skin mixed with essential oils to help the smell – no good. After contacting the company TWICE I finally had a reply and they very kindly made the situation right by sending another bucket at their cost. The problem was resolved satisfactorily. I have bought from them since, but am not always convinced the co is as fresh smelling as perhaps it should be….but then again, I am not a coconut oil expert by any means.
A friend had some of the Carrington Farms brand oil pictured in the original post and I tried it at her house. Delicious and fresh, tasting of nothing but yummy coconut. So, I asked her to pick up a jar of it for me when she went again. I am still using both brands, but for this moment, at least, the Carrington Farms brand is much better tasting.
I don’t believe Tropical Traditions sells bad products intentionally and they did fix the issue. I just thought it was interesting that my experience in this one instance was, generally,the opposite of what is being discussed here.
AND “Marys Gone Crackers”, when they have them!
… On another side note… not everything from Costco IS top notch any longer. I recently ordered about 5 expensive pool lounge chairs from Costco and each one came with cuts into the vinyl. I took each one back to my local store (which really got old!) I finally found the very same brand of chair at Tuesday Morning in perfect condition and bought the 2 I needed there. Then I bought a pool “board” for the kids to play on and BEFORE it was used (opened the plastic and put it by the pool to use) it formed a giant “bubble” on top and had to be returned (within a day). They do take things back and USUALLY without question but it gets old to return these inferior products that seem to be cropping up more and more often. I also had to return a bag of scallops which were NASTY!! Fishy-tasting and not fresh at all. 🙁
I do love the Kerrygold butter and ORganic coffee!!
I buy mine at trader joes when its on sale. I stock up. If it smelled it was not 100 percent coconut oil. Sorry. No way around it. Costco is great but sometimes things r overlooked.