How we press

Purealth is a small wood-pressing operation. We buy seed, press it slowly, bottle it, and send it to you. That is the whole business. This page explains what that actually means, because "cold-pressed" is written on a great many labels and means very little on most of them.

The press

We use a wooden ghani — a lakdi ghani, the same design Indian kitchens were supplied by for centuries. A wooden pestle turns slowly inside a wooden mortar and crushes the seed against it. Slow is the point: friction makes heat, and heat is what damages an oil. Our press runs cool enough that the oil never gets cooked on its way out.

Industrial extraction does the opposite. Seed is heated, crushed at speed, then washed with a solvent — usually hexane — to pull out the last of the oil. What comes out of that process has to be bleached and deodorised before it is fit to sell, because the process itself strips the oil of colour and gives it a smell.

What we never do

• No heat. Nothing is roasted or warmed to raise the yield.
• No hexane. No solvent touches the seed or the oil, at any stage.
• No bleaching. The colour you see is the oil's own.
• No deodorising. Groundnut oil smells like groundnuts. That is not a flaw.
• No refining. Nothing is stripped out and nothing is added back.

Why our oil keeps for six months, not two years

This is the part worth understanding before you buy. Refined oil sits on a shelf for two years because refining removes the compounds that would otherwise turn. Those compounds are also most of the reason to eat an unrefined oil in the first place.

Ours keeps for about six months. That is not a shortcoming we are apologising for — it is the direct consequence of leaving the oil alone. It does mean you should buy a size you will finish, keep it away from sunlight and heat, and close the cap properly. A 500 ml bottle that gets used is worth more than a 5 litre can that goes stale.

Small batches, honestly

We press to order and in small runs. It means we occasionally run short of something, and it means the oil you receive was pressed recently rather than sitting in a warehouse. If a batch is not right, it does not get bottled.

Who we are

Purealth is the brand of M/S Nimmadi Oils and Foods LLP, incorporated in January 2024. We hold an FSSAI licence, are GST registered, and are a registered Udyam MSME. We ship across India.

If you want to ask us something before you buy — about a specific oil, a batch, an ingredient, anything — email info@purealth.com or WhatsApp +91 74004 79330. A person answers.