Cocoguru is the pioneer and the only brand to make roasted coconut oil for cooking in the coastal Karnataka region. Marketing is very risky because of several myths that consumers have about it.

All micronutrients are destroyed during roasting.
Oil millers who can’t invest in roasting equipment and take the risk of marketing it just mislead consumers. They claim their oil has all the micronutrients, like vitamins, remaining intact. The fact is that coconut oil is 100% fat, with no micronutrients. If they are present in traces, they are retained even after roasting. Nobody consumes coconut oil for its vitamins; it is for its fat. Roasting of copra is not a process that destroys the properties of coconut oil. It is a small process that only enhances the fragrance and taste of coconut oil. People equate roasting with refining. Refining is a highly complex process that people think of, but roasting is a small process, like drying copra.

The oil’s colour is yellow. Hence, it is inferior.
Oil extracted from copra that has gone bad will be of darker colour. Oil extracted from copra after roasting is also darker or yellow in colour. But they cannot be equated. The point is discussed in detail in this post. Why is Cocoguru coconut oil yellow in colour? The English metaphor “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is appropriate here. Smell it and experience it entirely before judging the oil.

It is not suitable for cooking; it is appropriate only for hair.
It is an edible oil, highly recommended for cooking. In addition to normal cold-pressed coconut oil, roasted coconut oil also adds to the flavour, aroma and taste. The whole kitchen and dining will be scented with divine coconut flavour. Heating food items moderately is not bad, in fact it is good and sometimes essential. Rice has to be cooked with steam, chapathi has to be roasted before eating. We never say rice or wheat has lost its quality in the process.

It is not naturally possible to have such a sweet aroma and taste; it must be perfumed.
I have heard these objections many times from retailers. I show them by drinking a few drops of oil to convince them. Sweet aroma and taste are emitted after the roasting of copra pieces. Experience the difference between raw ground nuts and roasted ground nuts. The more you heat tea leaves, the more aroma and flavour they emanate.

Shelf life is high because of the use of preservatives.
Roasting of copra dries out any moisture still left in the copra. Moisture causes rancidity in oil. This is the reason cold-pressed oils and wood-pressed oils go rancid fast as they contain too much moisture. Heating also sterilises the bacteria and fungus in copra. So, shelf life is enhanced without adding any preservatives.

Wood Pressed oils are a craze now. This can be seen in the products sold on Amazon and the number of such outlets opened in towns because of the massive consumer preference. I don’t say they are wrong because they compare it with what they consume today, i.e., refined oil. However, they are wrong when they compare wood-pressed oil with corresponding expeller-pressed crude, filtered oil. Health consciousness should rise, but they should also know what is healthy. Not go with what is popularly happening but scientifically reason it. Usually, what is priced higher is good, but not always. This fad about wood-pressed oil is one such exceptional case.

We don’t debate that wood-pressed oil is inferior to refined oil. Wood-pressed oil is far superior to refined oil, period. But is it the best way to make oil? The answer is NO! Let us analyse this.

Two types of machines to extract crude oil from copra

• Expeller is a fully closed arrangement; moisture should be removed entirely from the copra.
• Rotary is an open conical grinding machine; moisture must be present in the copra for lubrication.

Debate – which is better?

For expeller

• Moisture causes oil to go rancid. A better extraction mechanism should remove moisture so that expeller oil has a longer shelf life.
• The expeller squeezes more oil from the copra than the rotary. So, extraction efficiency is better, oil costs will be lower, and oil cake will have lower oil content wasted.
• By increasing the size and supplying more power, an expeller can crush a greater quantity of copra. This allows automation of the entire process on a larger scale.
• Oil extracted through an expeller from dried copra can be filtered online through a filter press. Oil extracted from rotary from moist copra can only be filtered by sedimentation, which will take 7-10 days. So, an expeller gives faster throughput and requires less inventory.
• The oil smells and tastes better because copra is heated to some extent.

For rotary – only argument

• Copra is not heated, so the properties of coconut are retained.

What properties of coconut would have been lost by heating? The common answer is vitamins. Any coconut oil contains 99.9% fat and 0.1% moisture. That means there is no other nutrient in coconut oil. Forget Vitamins; coconut oil has no carbohydrates, proteins, or minerals. It is only fat.
Heating may go up to 80 degrees in the expeller and 60 degrees in the rotary. At both these temperatures, the fats don’t undergo any change. If heating food is bad, then why do we cook rice, roast chapatis, and pasteurise milk? Shouldn’t we consume them raw?

From the rotary, it goes further down to the wooden rotary instead of the steel rotary.

• The extent to which oil is squeezed from copra is even lower. So, oil yield is lower, labour cost is higher, and hence, oil cost is much higher.
• The heat generated is even lower. So, there is no value addition of heat.
• Wood absorbs moisture and oil and retains it. This isn’t good for food hygiene and safety.
• When the wood press is unused, bacteria and fungus develop on the surface.

So, we have argued that rotary oil is inferior to expeller oil, and wood-pressed oil takes it a step further and is inferior and more expensive.
Now, in an expeller, roasting copra before oil extraction increases the quality to another level by enhancing flavour, taste, aroma, and shelf life.

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Saurav Ganguly, the price of Kolkata, was a former Indian test cricket captain who was responsible for building Indian cricket from the abyss of 2000 to what it is today. The post is not about cricket but about the cooking oil he endorsed, his mild heart attack, and social media trolling.
It is unfortunate that our idol had a heart attack, and as we had prayed, he recovered quickly after Angioplasty. The moment news broke out about his heart attack, people remembered the product/brand he endorsed. The Fortune brand refined rice bran oil marketed by Adani Wilmar, advertised by agency Ogilvy and Mather claims the oil to be heart healthy. Why did he get a heart attack despite being a sportsperson at the highest level and at the young age of 48?

At one level, it is unfair to target Saurav Ganguly or the brand Fortune for his present health status. Brand only claims that the oil is good for the heart and never claims that no matter what you do, you will never get a heart attack. Saurav, on his part, despite following a healthy lifestyle, had to get a heart attack. I promote coconut oil for cooking and hair, but I am bald, and I am not necessarily the healthiest. So, coconut oil or the brand Cocoguru is not responsible for it. But for that, we need to think fairly, which doesn’t happen in the emotional world of advertising.

Should Saurav Ganguly promote the product/brand?
Saurav Ganguly has worked hard as a professional cricketer to achieve the success he has and rise to be a nationally adored celebrity. He has also borne the cost of being a celebrity. It is only wise that he uses his reach to commercially encash his popularity. But people are only questioning his responsibility in choosing the products he has endorsed. I believe he must personally use it. I have done some basic research and liked it before endorsing it to others. I know Harsha Bhogle, for one, does the due diligence before endorsing a brand. A few cricketers like Hashim Amla don’t sport the Castle Lager logo on their shirts, though it is their national sponsor as it is a liquor brand. With financial commitments, it is easy to endorse brands that pay the most. Sportsmen are also under pressure to make money fast as they have limited time, which appeals mostly to their playing days when they are playing well.

Should the brand select Saurav Ganguly for the campaign?
The campaign is about being healthy even after crossing 40 years of age, and Ganguly is the correct choice for it as he is an icon for all people across the country who are of that generation. But the brand’s advertising agency must have worked with Ganguly to find out if he really is a user of the product and duct and whether the product really promotes heart health. For any long-term relationship to work, the deal must work fairly both ways.

Risk of having a personality endorse a brand
Nobody would have anticipated Ganguly suffering from a heart attack, so the brand must be excused for not covering this risk. There have been backlashes in the past for celebrities taking political positions like Amir Khan, Deepika Padukone, Swara Bhasker etc and users have boycotted the products they have endorsed. Celebrities are humans, after all, and have the right to opinion and expression, but it runs the risk of their followers liking it or not. Using celebrities gives brands immediate benefits of reach and liking, but it also carries its risks.

Is there any logic, head or heart in promoting refined oils as healthy?
The low cost of refined oil gives its marketers a wide mass market for consumption and hence the marketing budget to spend, enticing the users to switch to it. Refined oils may be devoid of impurities like free fatty acids, bad odour, extra colour, solid particles and moisture. But why did the oil have impurities in the first place? Because they were inferior-grade oils that were made acceptable through refining. Crude, raw, filtered, cold-pressed oils are extracted from superior-grade oil seeds and ready for consumption as they are without having to undergo refining. But they are expensive because such oil seeds are expensive. Crude oils are healthy, but their manufacturers don’t have the marketing muscle to promote them to the masses. Masses can’t afford it, either. Masses usually succumb to dubious claims by advertisers, especially if they come from celebrities.