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 gave up after 100 comments.
stop being sheep, do your own research and make up your own minds.Sharing info is good -yes- but stop criticising the woman and her blog, write your own blog if you do not agree, not agreeing is fine , but stop being sheep – find the info you seek and decide.
Well said!
My local Costco sells the Nutivia brand of coconut oil, and I’ve always been pleased with the quality.
Hi Sarah,
after reading about Olive oil, now I’m wondering what are the better brands to use in
cooking, eating in general..thank you.
It’s a bit disturbing to me that Sarah has not retracted her original comments or at least modified them, acknowledging that she perhaps overreacted and failed to do appropriate research before posting what is only a personal opinion. In fact, this has bothered me since originally reading this post last week and has caused me to wonder what else I’ve read by her that was written based on opinion only without any facts.
I’ve been thinking the same thing, Pamela. She hasn’t said a word since people started calling her on it. Admit you made a mistake and people can forgive, but is she really standing by this nonsense?
I was on vacation for 10 days and wasn’t checking any posts. This blog was an opinion post .. a heads up for folks to watch out for cheap coconut oil. If it was a research based post, I would have sourced it .. I did post opinions from 2 heads of coconut oil companies which I considered very good input.
I have never seen Sarah correct a mistake or even acknowledge there is one. She just goes on to the next post and ignores the fallout. Unfortunate.
Same here, seen her make a few mistakes and never admit it or never set the record straight. I don’t even use this coconut oil but if she doesn’t correct this situation and address it, I’m unsubscribing from her. If she can’t be viewed as reliable and honest, what’s the point?
I’m not sure how an opinion can be considered a mistake?
You didn’t give an opinion. You made dogmatic statements and they were not correct. Too many people accept what you say without question for you to let this go. You maligned a great company with quality products and a good oil produced with high standards. Your opinion can’t be mistaken?
I am sorry if you interpreted this post that way. It was not written in that frame of mind. I am not going to change my opinion just because it makes some folks upset. If this post has caused a few people to stop buying coconut oil at Costco, WalMart and other places and to support small businesses instead, for that I am very glad 🙂
I think it’s more likely to have informed people that they can save the cost of their Cosco membership just by getting their coconut oil there. It’s hard for a family on a fixed income to justify to upfront cost (like $60 or w/e) but if that can be saved in buying “high quality” (as shown by other more well informed posters) Carrington or Nutiva coconut oils then we can pretty much all afford it 🙂
Yes, I understand this. However, a few years back when my family was on a poverty level income for quite sometime we never bought at big box retailers. We reprioritized our budget, bought small and local if and whereever possible and always found a way to buy the best food and never settled for cheap that might have questionable quality so I know it can be done.
That’s great that you could manage that. But not everyone lives in Florida where there is an abundance of good local food available year round. There are several foods that are never available locally here, and even the ones that are, are only available for a short time. Our family shops mainly locally during season (and raise what food we can), but the rest of the year it is very helpful that Costco carries some of the things we need, (we also order through Azure Standard). And at least when we do shop there, we know that the employees (local folks, by the way, who need a pay check) are treated well and are happy with their job (you know they’re happy with their job when they’ve been working there for years). We also know which items are high quality and which are not (most of them are high quality, btw). And some of us have high expenses in other areas of our lives, and can’t cut those (such as medical expenses – not all medical expenses can be cut by eating well).
Actually, that is not really true. Believe it or not, the summers get way too hot and buggy for much if any local produce.
Well, even if there aren’t things growing in the summer, you obviously live an area different from ours. I can guarantee you that no one in this area could do that in this area where we live. It is not good to criticize others for the doing the best they can, and to use your experience (the experience of one family in one area) as proof that they are not trying hard enough. Yes, you did it, but that was in your circumstances, not theirs.
I heard from my doctor that coconut oil is best for your skin and overal health!!!
Well, I have to say I have used this brand and I had an experience with it turning yellow and rancid as it got closer to the bottom. I bought more and didn’t have the same problem, so maybe it was just a bad batch? I kind of questioned it myself because it is so much cheaper than other brands out there right now, so I sent a message to the company asking about their Fair Trade practices. They couldn’t really give me much info other than to say the following: “Our coconut oil originates from the Philippines. All of our coconuts come from organic certified farms and are processed within roughly four hours of picking them. While we are not fair trade certified, we have social audits done to assure the farms and processor are socially responsible. Thanks for the question!” Not sure how they define *social audits* but to me that leaves a lot up to interpretation and could be the reason for the cheaper cost. Just my .02!
Sarah, I am very confused here. I came across your article on coconut oil also. Carrington Farms is of the highest quality and you said they were suspect because they had extra virgin written on their label, but the company you recommended also has that written on their label? You’re selling that one right? Also, Costco doesn’t sell inferior product in fact they were one of only several Extra Virgin Olive Oil’s that actually got very high ratings for being pure. I have a friend who sells her product to Costco and I know for a fact she only uses the best ingredients in jelly. Costco sells at lower prices because of their buying power not because of inferior goods. I have to agree with Erin Boyd.
Sarah, I am very confused here. I came across your article on coconut oil also. Carrington Farms is of the highest quality and you said they were suspect because they had extra virgin written on their label, but the company you recommended also has that written on their label? You’re selling that one right? Also, Costco doesn’t sell inferior product in fact they were one of only several Extra Virgin Olive Oil’s that actually got very high ratings for being pure. I have a friend who sells her product to Costco and I know for a fact she only uses the best ingredients in jelly. Costco sells at lower prices because of their buying power not because of inferior goods. I have to agree with Erin Boyd.
I am looking at the label of my jar of Nutiva Coconut Oil and it says extra virgin.
Are you aware that Tropical Traditions has free shipping a lot of the time? I buy five gallon jugs from them when they offer free shipping. It makes for some good priced, high quality coconut oil.