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: Â 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. Â There is no such thing as “extra virgin coconut oil”. Â 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? Â Not necessarily. Â 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. Â 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. Â If they run it too fast or do not change the filters, one can get pieces of coconut (protein) in the product. Â You will not see it other than with time you might see a slight change in color on the bottom of the container. Â 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? Â Maybe, maybe not. Â 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. Â 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. Â Buyer beware!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
More Information
Coconut Oil May Not Be Right for You
MCT Oil: The Coconut Oil Dregs
This is just one person’s opinion. I have bought the Coconut oil at Costco for sometime and NEVER had a problem with it. Costco is a good company with a very good business plan and treats their employees well. (do some research and see the real difference between Costco and Walmart, do not lump them together as “the same kind of BIG Box”) Costco carries lots of organics and healthy options. Is it possible that that jar was contaminated by by the person using it? Yes Don’t label buying something from a good company RISKY because of a few instances which could have just as easily been user error.
A point that has not been brought up yet, is the hidden cost of mass produced product distributed by huge corporations?
Also, perhaps we could look at possible consequences of believing we should have everything we want when we want it?
These seem to be a part of the problem of why our world is in the (sad) state of affairs it is currently in?
No accusations, just questions……..
I bought this exact coconut oil at Costco and it doesn’t say extra Virgin , just says Virgin cold pressed ……..so not sure why its diff from one in picture????
Eh, the rather heavy price of coconut oil is the reason I don’t purchase it. Better not to get an inferior product though!
Could it be that this individual placed a PLASTIC container in high heat and the BPA leaked into the product? There are many brands that use plastic containers to store their oil. This same result could happen with small or large brands. Store in a dry cool place. Be smart!
I agree! Telling people to store their coconut oil (that typically comes in a plastic container, especially large economy sizes) at temperatures up to 120F for several months in order to somehow validate its quality is quite irresponsible.
Sometimes I really hate to get your emails with updates to your blog! It forces me to dig in and do some research! At the same time, thank you! Thank you for doing your research and staying on top of things and informing your readers. I buy the Nutiva brand from Costco. It is comparable pricing with Amazon but without shipping it is cheaper at Costco. I am going to put one out in my garage this summer. I love a good experiment. On a side note, I live in CO and Costco has the lowest price on Kerry Gold butter I have found anywhere!
Me too 🙂 as well as “Mary’s Gone Crackers”…a better price in bulk to be sure.
You’re right about the price on KerryGold butter. I’ve never seen Mary’s Gone Crackers and Costco but, will definitely look for them next time I’m there. Thanks.
Sarah, I have followed your blog daily since its early days, and respect your voice in these matters. Unfortunately, I don’t see where you did due diligence here by only contacting the company you prefer (as good as WFN is). Everyone who has a dog in this fight (even companies that sell to big box stores) ought to be given a chance to have their say. It behooves those of us who espouse WAPF principles to keep the fight clean.
I contacted and posted the responses of 2 owners of respected companies who sell high quality virgin coconut oil. I also contacted Radiant Life which confirmed that they are in the process of changing their label to stop using the misleading and meaningless term “extra” with regard to virgin coconut oil.
But what you obviously failed to do was to contact Carrington Farms and inquire about the quality of their oil, so as to have an even playing field, but instead based your post on a comment from someone who did not like the smell, for whatever reason. Very poor detective work. Please admit you were wrong.
Unfortunately, I’ve not been at all encouraged with the responses I’ve received from customer service departments in the past regarding low quality, defective items. I favor getting objective answers from objective sources not involved in the problem at hand. This way you get straight answers as I have gotten from the 2 owners of companies that sell top quality virgin coconut oil and know the ropes well (please see the article for their take on the situation).
I realize some will not like this post and think I should have waited for a double blind scientific study before posting anything questionable about coconut oil from Costco, but in my experience with food that has made its way through the industrial food system, where there’s smoke there’s fire and I prefer to alert my readers to information that can help them make better informed decisions regarding sourcing of their nutrient dense foods. At the very least, many folks checked their coconut oil and will be returning it if is smells funky and not using it which some folks would have done harming their health. 🙂
Oh and I should add that it is important to note that this post is not about Carrington Farms … it is about large amounts of inventory, possibly old, improperly filtered, manufacturers defect coconut oil getting sold at big box retailers for dirt cheap. Focusing on Carrington distracts from the larger issue at hand .. sourcing and identification of high quality organic virgin coconut oil that is what it claims to be.
What good does it do to contact any of those companies? You can’t verify any of their claims. These aren’t our local farmers. Even the owners, who are not present for the entire process, can not really make these claims the way, say, my local dairy farmer can. All this really says is that you trust the word of some companies.
Thank you for this post. I have been reminded that coconut oil is a real food and therefore can occasionally go bad. Therefore, from now on, I will only buy it at Costco where I know I can take it back if there is a problem instead of paying very high shipping fees to return a spoiled container!
I have contacted Carrington Farms through their “contact us” link on their website. I’ve left them the link to this discussion board. Perhaps they will address this issue here for all to see. I use this product without complaint but I’m interested to see their response to what I feel can be a serious situation as a consumer (and Carrington Farms as a retailer).
Thank you, Christine, for contacting Carrington Farms. You seem to be the only one to do that. I, too, am interested in their response.
I posted the objective observations of 2 owners of quality virgin coconut oil companies which is a far more important information as far as I’m concerned.
So, in Sarah-world the “objective” observations of competing companies has more validity than the company you have maligned? And, it was not necessary to contact the company you were planning to slam to ask for a comment/response before you published? OK. Got it!
UPDATE: I stated above that I contacted Carrington Farms about their product and even though it’s the weekend I received a prompt response. 🙂 I was sent a link to their FAQ sheet BUT in ADDITION they stated this to help answer questions…
“We are able to offer the price to Costco that you see due the economies of scale. They buy upwards to 60 truckloads of coconut oil per month so we are able to ship and manufacture economically. However, our same brand sells for a much higher price in a local health food store since it is much more expensive per jar to ship them a case of 6 then per jar on a truckload. In all our research there seems to be no difference between ‘Virgin’ and ‘Extra Virgin’. Our Canadian label says Virgin as that is the rule for labeling there, in the US we use Extra Virgin on the label. The coconut oil is the same. There are no other oils, or ANYTHING, added to our pure expeller cold pressed coconut oil. We use only raw fresh coconut meat taken from Organic coconuts and press it in the Philippines. “
Thank you for contacting Carrington and following up with their response on this page Christine. Sarah seem to have an agenda on this article and it is to sell her sponsor’s products and dog a product and store just because she is not a fan of any big chain store.
I have a question on bacon fat. I buy uncured bacon. Should I be throwing the fat away? Most health blogs do not list it as a good fat.
According to the Weston A. Price Foundation, it is a good fat. I would use it and not throw it away.
This post is irresponsible at best, libel at worst, considering there are no facts, no studies, no scientific data…just some woman that had a jar of coconut oil not smell right. If you are that concerned then do some real research and then report. Spreading this conjecture on the internet is not helpful to anyone.
I don’t need scientific data to identify a poor quality, rancid oil.
I am curious why you did not approve my replies to other readers. I was giving them props and some encouragement. i used my main email address if that is your concern.
You didn’t even see it in real life!! LMFAO. You have lost so much credibility with this ridiculous blog post.
The point is to drive sales to the sponsors.
Thank you, Angie.
I thank you sarah for the alert. it is better to be warned of possible problems than ti be kept in dark. My gransparents who were italuan and very picky about qualityonly used philipo berioolive oil in the green labled bottle.
they said that when they used it no build up of oil woukd accunulate T tip of oil decanter they used.
it is orbwas 100% cold pressed. Sometimes walmart makes special contract with national brands to priduce one for them exactly the same as sold eksewhere bur if ibferior qualiry. some times it has a different code or bar number. I learned tjusvwhen the had a promise they had lowest price but wad told they had a different cide than the one at sams club. Its good too when we do our own thinking and checkingbiutbon stuf. Even sarahs posts. but lets not fry sarah while at it. she offers from her heart what she can. Thank you Sarah forball your informatibe videosvand posts. I dont know if philipo berio us thevsamevtoday