About

While there are a few consumer cottonseed oil products on the market, the primary market is in restaurant foodservice and food manufacturing ¹².

Cotton crops are ready for harvest after the bolls are opened. Typically cotton crops in the Southwest mature for harvesting in mid-July; then continue eastwards across the Cotton Belt with Southeast harvests occurring in September/October. In the United States, the majority of cotton is harvested using machine pickers, which remove the fiber- and seed-containing bolls from the stalks. The harvested cotton is placed in large round modules and transported to a cotton gin for processing.

After separating the lint from the fiber at the gin, the cottonseed is transported to a cottonseed crushing mill. There it is cleaned and conveyed to delinting machines which, operating on the same principle as a gin, remove the remaining short fibers known as linters.

Cottonseed is similar to other plant-based oils like coconut and sunflower oils in that it has an oil-bearing kernel surrounded by a hard outer hull that needs to be removed. After the linters are removed, the seed is put through a machine that uses a series of blades to loosen the hulls from the kernel. The seeds are then passed through shakers and beaters. The separated hulls are marketed for livestock feed or industrial products, and the kernels are ready for the extraction of oil.

Precooking the seed is necessary to open up the oil glands so the oil can be expressed. It is also necessary to detoxify the gossypol. Next, solvent extraction or presses remove the oil and, from there, the oil must be processed and refined before it can be used for consumption. This is done in order to remove impurities, including free fatty acids (FFA), phospholipids, pigments and volatile compounds ¹¹.

While there are a few consumer cottonseed oil products on the market, the primary market is in restaurant foodservice and food manufacturing ¹².