Blogs
5 Signs Your Cooking Oil is
Fake or Adulterated
(And How to Test It)
Here is how to protect your family: five signs your oil may not be what the label claims, and simple tests you can do at home.
Sign 1: The Price is Too Low
This is the single most reliable indicator. Genuine cold pressed oil costs more to produce than refined oil because the cold pressing method extracts 25-35% less oil from the same quantity of seeds. A litre of genuine kachi ghani mustard oil cannot cost the same as refined mustard oil and still be profitable to produce honestly.
Market reference prices for genuine products: cold pressed coconut oil Rs. 280-500 per litre. Kachi ghani mustard oil Rs. 180-320 per litre. Cold pressed groundnut oil Rs. 220-380 per litre. If you see cold pressed oil priced significantly below these ranges, apply other tests immediately.
Sign 2: Wrong Colour for the Oil Type
Every genuine cold pressed oil has a characteristic natural colour. Kachi ghani mustard oil should be deep amber to brownish-yellow — never pale golden or transparent. Cold pressed coconut oil should be faintly golden when liquid and white when solid below 24 degrees C.
Cold pressed groundnut oil should be golden to dark gold. Cold pressed sunflower oil should be pale golden with a slight golden tint — not completely clear. If your ‘cold pressed’ oil is completely colourless and transparent, it has been refined, bleached, or heavily filtered — none of which is consistent with genuine cold pressing.
Sign 3: No Natural Smell or Wrong Smell
Genuine cold pressed oils smell of their source seed. Open your bottle and smell before using. Kachi ghani mustard oil should hit you with a pungent, sharp smell that has character — it should not smell of nothing. Cold pressed coconut oil should smell pleasantly of coconuts. Cold pressed groundnut oil should have a warm, mild peanut aroma. If your cold pressed oil smells like nothing — completely neutral — either the aromatic compounds were destroyed during high-temperature deodorisation (meaning it was refined) or the label is misrepresenting a refined oil.
Sign 4: Oil That Solidifies Unexpectedly (or Never Solidifies)
Coconut oil should solidify below approximately 24 degrees Celsius — in most Indian refrigerators it becomes solid or semi-solid. If your cold pressed coconut oil never solidifies even in the refrigerator, it may be adulterated with oils that have lower melting points.
Conversely, mustard oil should remain liquid in normal room temperatures. If it solidifies at room temperature, it has likely been blended with palm oil or another high-saturated-fat oil.
Sign 5: No Natural Sediment
Genuine cold pressed oil that has not been extensively filtered will have a small amount of natural plant sediment visible at the bottom of the bottle — tiny particles of seed material that passed through the cloth filter used in traditional kachi ghani pressing. This sediment is harmless and indicates minimal processing. An oil that is perfectly, completely clear with zero sediment has either been very finely filtered (which is acceptable in some premium processing) or has been refined. Sediment is not a quality defect — it is a positive indicator in cold pressed oil.
Home Tests for Oil Adulteration
Mustard oil pungency test: rub a drop of oil between your palms, cup over your nose and inhale. Genuine kachi ghani mustard oil should produce noticeable pungency — slight nose and eye irritation. Refined or adulterated mustard oil will be much milder or completely neutral.
Coconut oil solidification test: put a small amount in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Genuine cold pressed coconut oil solidifies cleanly into a white solid.
Argemone oil test for mustard oil: add 5ml of your oil to 5ml of concentrated nitric acid in a test tube. Shake for 1 minute. Genuine mustard oil turns pale yellow. Argemone-adulterated oil turns orange to brick red — argemone oil adulteration causes epidemic dropsy, a dangerous condition, and is unfortunately still found in India.
What to Do If You Suspect Adulteration
Stop using the oil immediately, particularly if you suspect mineral oil or argemone oil contamination. You can report suspected food adulteration to FSSAI at fssai.gov.in or the Consumer Helpline at 1800-11-4000. Buy your next batch from a brand that provides clear sourcing information, batch numbers, and purity testing data. GreenDumbells includes a batch code on every bottle — we can trace any batch back to the specific pressing run and source seeds.