How is SHEA BUTTER oil extracted
Chemicaly
The shea nuts are grinded and mixed with chemicals to seperate the fat. This is done by using solvents such as n-hexaan.
Disadvantage: Hexane is a harmful substance for humans and nature. Obviously it will be removed from the shea butter but there is a chance traces will remain.
Mechanicaly
This method is used to make shea butter on a large scale. The nuts and fats are heated and then pressed in a large press. The oils and fats are separated from the kernels by pressure, than filtered and collected.
Disadvantage: This method does not remove bad nuts from the stock. The bad notes can be recognized by the color and are removed by hand in the traditional way of producing. The quality of mechanically produced shea butter is measurably inferior to the quality of the shea butter that is traditionally produced.
Cold pressed
With this method, the fats are pressed out of the nut without heating. Compared to other methods, little fat is extracted from the nuts with this method. This is actually the only way you should call RAW because the other ways are all using heating (or chemicals).
Disadvantage: The yield is small due to the lack of heat.
Traditional hand-crafted
