Some notes about shelf life

Many of our customers ask us how long the oils will last, and what conditions they need to be stored in. So, we wanted to compile our knowledge on the subject and share it with everyone.

First, let's start with cold-pressed seed and nut oils. Many oils available on the market have an extended shelf life, because they have been refined to remove certain components of the oil, and are preserved with Vitamin E (if use for cosmetic purposes).

It's a bit like powdered milk compared with the milk that's available directly from a farm. Powdered milk has been stripped of many components to make it shelf stable, but it's mainly empty calories and has lots much of its nutritional value. Fresh milk from a farm hasn't been pasteurized or homogenized, so it doesn't last very long, but it has its full life force.

For our cold-pressed oils, we do not refine them other than to pass the oil through a paper filter to remove leftover pieces of the seed and some waxes. The color, smell and full spectrum of the oil remains. That means it's a bit more fragile than refined oils, but, like pure olive oil, it still can last for 1-3 years depending on how it's stored. We recommend keeping it in a cool and dark place, even the refrigerator (especially in Cyprus summers), and if you have a big bottle, then it's best to decant it to a smaller one to remove excess air, if you plan on keeping it for a long time before using it. Luckily, oil that starts to oxidize isn't necessarily harmful, but it loses its benefits and potency, and will start to smell a bit strange (that's the biggest indicator).

Of course by law we have to put a "best before" date on the label, but each person can control the shelf life by storage conditions, and sense when the oil has lost its power through smell.

For essential oils, many are quite stable and can last five years or more. They've found perfume and other products from thousands of years ago that, preserved properly in glass, have retained their aroma! As with cold-pressed oils, it's important to keep essential oil bottles in a cool and dark place, although refrigerator isn't necessary, except for our cold-pressed citrus oils. These are produced using a different technique, and have a shelf life of approximately two years (or longer if kept in the refrigerator). If its possible to decant the oils into smaller bottles to reduce "headspace," as you use the oil, this will also reduce the likelihood of oxidation and and any in the smell and potency of the oil.

With many oils on the market today there is no transparency on when the oil was produced (or where). As standard practice, we always disclose the production date of each batch, and we make it a principle to produce small batches. We make a new batch of  our cold-pressed seed and nut oils every one to three months. Essential oils we produce once or twice a year, and we rarely produce more oil than is needed until the next harvest (except for certain oils from wild plants that we don't do every year because of variations in weather conditions). 

We try to follow the wisdom of nature and produce what is needed for the upcoming year, and replenish when it's finished, using substitutes when needed if an oil is unavailable in one season or runs out before the next harvest. Following this approach allows our customers to have access to fresh and unadultered oils, even if more fragile, rather than the status quo which is consume more shelf-stable oils that are preserved and adultered, and possibly have already lost their freshness.