In the Cold Press method, the peel of the fruit is penetrated while rolling over a trough. This leads to piercing of the tiny pouches which contain the essential oil. Once the whole fruit is pressed to squeeze the juice and the essential oil from the pulp, the essential oil rises to the surface of the juice. Now comes the separation process which is done from the juice by  the centrifugation method. The essential oil produced from this method have a very short life to expire.

The term Cold Pressed  is derived from the German words Kalt Geschlagen, which literally mean cold pummeled. Cold Pressed oils do not reach a temperture more than 50°C. No external heat is supplied to the oil. The heat is produced because of  pressure & rotational friction. In Germany, oil was produced manually at home 100 years ago by the German women. The seeds were poured into a wedge-shaped container and a wooden edge was driven into it. The housewives usually hit the wedge with a wooden mallet and the oil would keep dripping for an hour. This process was continued for every single hour. The temperature ranges from 85°C and 95°C for dripping of the oil.

Applications

Cold pressed method is mainly used for extracting essential oils from plants, their seeds and fruits. This method is used to obtain citrus fruit oils such as bergamot, grapefruit, lemon, lime, mandarin, orange and tangerine oils.