Coconut oil shelf life? Other cooking oils

I have been trying to determine what a good oil is that can store for a really long time and not go bad. I thought that oils would last for many years but I started looking around and read several things that stated olive oil can go rancid relatively quickly. I also read that coconut oil has a long shelf life but I still don't really have any solid info on it.

Does anyone here have any advice on the subject? Some of the main things I am trying to figure out is what is a good cooking oil for long term storage.

Does the olive oil stay good for many years if the container is sealed? Maybe I need to just buy smaller bottles.

I actually would like to keep coconut oil so if anyone has more solid info on shelf life for coconut oil please let me know.

Are there any other cooking oils that are healthy and have proven long term shelf lives? I'm looking for stuff I can use 20 years from now

 

I am not sure if coconut oil will hold up for 20 years or not. There are those here who sing the praises of coconut oil above all other oils. I find it cost prohibitive for me. You can do a site search of "coconut oil", and maybe find the answers you are looking for. It seems to me it has been discussed. Sorry I don't remember the exact details.

 

I have used the Pam spray Olive Oil for over a year in one can, still good til the can was empty. Their regular 'grilling' oil though went rancid much quicker - still worked okay with not too bad a taste on fries baked in the oven, but noticibly 'off'.
I have a steel one-gallon can of Extra Virgin Olive Oil in my long term preps. Hope it lasts - that stuff is expensive!

 

Coconut oil has an almost indefinite shelf life. We have tested oil bought and put back in 1993 and it is only now starting to show any signs of rancidity. Coconut oil is an excellent oil for storage. It has umpteen health benefits and is actually nutritionally better for you than any other oil on the market.

However, the storage life of coconut oil is because the degradation and rancidity that plagues most oils comes from their mono- or poly-unsaturated status. Saturated oils are extremely stable, and solid saturated oils, such as coconut oil are even more stable yet.

Liquid oils should NOT be stored longer than their printed sell by date. A little known fact is those oils have anti rancidity ingredients added to them when they are bottled, and this is because they are already starting to turn just hours after being pressed. Basically liquid oils are already rancid because they oxidize like crazy.

 

Ive been storing some canola now for over a year. I recently opened one to fill the deep fryer. No problems at all. I am thinking though that solid oils like crisco in a can may be better. I have canned butter(Red Feather) which states it has no expiration date. Howe long would canned lard last? KF

 

Lard lasts longer if kept on the pig til needed......

"Canola Oil"...... uh...... I avoid that stuff like the plague. Too many horror stories. Given my long-term "Peanut Butter Test" (four years out and NOTHING touches it...) I believe it to not even be an organic food product.

The plus side is.... probably an indefinite 'shelf life'. I'm betting they found some Canola Oil still 'good' in King Tut's tomb........ along with his stash of Twinkies.

 

I now avoid Canola because it's genetically modified. I've had the same bottle for 10 yrs now. It sits in the bottom of the Lazy Susan and it's as clear as the day I bought it. I'm keeping it just to see how long it will last! I might will it to a niece if it's still around when I'm on my way out!

Byte

 

It will stay clear. The taste, however will be downright disgusting.

 

Like Seawolf I have a few gallon cans of Olive Oil. Sure hope it stays good.

 

I have not noticed any change in taste with canola at all. We just used one that was over a year old and there was zero bad results. In fact the the deep fried Bluegill fillets were awesome. The bottle says 100% pure canola oil from Canada. We use it because of the low volume of bad fats. I guess Ill have to do some research on canola. KF

 

Canola Oil = modified Rape Seed oil.

Rape Seed = ingredient in insectisides and other poisons - deadly to mammals.

Some poopoo the horror stories, others won't touch the stuff. Neither side offers really definitive proof, But better to avoid possible nastiness than eat it and suffer later. If it's harmless, y'all can enjoy my share. Plenty other choices out there. I have lately begun to like the mild flavor imparted by olive oil.
I have never seen Coconut Oil in the regular stores - I guess maybe the healthfood places might carry it? But as expensive as it likely is, I don't put it high on my priorities list.

 

Is Canola Oil dangerous? | The Skeptic Detective

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blcanola3.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola

http://www.soyatech.com/canola_facts.htm


After some detective work I see two sides to the story about Canola. We have been using it for over 10 years. Read what this guy has to say about it.

Im going to continue to look at other sources but clearly there are two sides to this story. KF.

 

We only use it in our deep fryer for fish. Also some gets used in browning meats for stews. We also fry with butter, crisco, and other vegetable oils. My wife has always used Canola due to low bad fats. READ IN PARTICULAR THE PART I PUT IN QUOTATIONS,KF

Toby Maloney​

Found on http://www.integrative-medicine.net/page81.html
It's often called Canada's "miracle crop". It's marketed as a healthy alternative, and, for the moment, growers can even make a living. But is Canola oil actually healthy? And for whom? The name Canola, from "Canada oil", was the signal that some sophisticated marketing was going to take place. Canola was the first crop created modern plant breeding methods. It is usually credited to Baldur Stefanson at the University of Manitoba, who took rapeseeed, previously used as a lubricant in ship engines, and bred varieties that were low in erucic acid and glucosinates. In 1979 the Rapeseed Crushers Association decided the new "double low" varieties should be given a different name to avoid association with previous rapeseed products sold as cooking oil. It was no coincidence the new name rhymed with granola. As concerns over levels of saturated fat in other oil products grew, the new product entered the market as an alternative low in saturated fat, but high in desirable oleic acid. Demand skyrocketed and farmers rushed to buy seed.
But before we add the happy-ever-after to this technological tale, there are some important issues to consider. What might seem healthy for city dwellers to consume isn't necessarily healthy for people where it is grown, for workers who handle the materials used, or for the environment. A typical Canola crop starts with seeds treated with fungicide for seedling diseases, and often an insecticide to prevent damage from flea beetles. After the seedlings emerge, herbicides are applied to control weeds. Canola yields can also be affected by a variety of insect problems, for which the remedy is often aerial spraying, and a fungus problem just prior to harvest called Sclerotinia.
This focus on chemicals isn't that different from cereal crops that are grown conventionally and this is not to say that other oilseeds are any better.
The problem is that instead of finding ways to use less or no herbicides and a lot less fuel and synthetic fertilizer, we are promoting a crop that is very difficult to grow organically. Also, Canola is the first crop in Canada to receive a license for "transgenic" varieties - plants altered with genetic material from other plants or animals. Typically, the transgenic varieties are designed by chemical companies to require the application of their favorite brand of herbicide. Given the cancer risk, would you call a food crop that is increasingly dependent on herbicides, fungicides, and even aerial spraying of pesticides, "healthy?" While prairie provinces export thousands of tonnes of Canola oil (and they have begun to make a diesel fuel out of it), if you want to buy a quality cold pressed edible version, you're not going to find a prairie product. This to me is the equivalent of France selling no Champagne, no Beaujolais, just cheap plonk in screw top bottles.
In most cases the best ingredients in oil are seriously damaged or destroyed by the industrial-type processing that occurs. As detailed by oils expert Udo Erasmus, in his 1988 pamphlet Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill, most oil is refined with acids and the same base that unclogs drains. Then the bleaching process removes "every essential nutrient except fatty acids."
Then deodorization by steam distillation distorts some fatty acids into "trans-fatty acids" which interfere with beneficial ingredients in oils.


"But any of this is mostly irrelevant if we are eating deep-fried doughnuts or French Fries, or frying our food until the oil smokes or eating margarine made from hydrogenated oil".




And for most consumers that is their experience with Canola. And so it is only a cynical manipulation to promote the nutritional value of Canola, when the nutrients don't make it to the table. This manipulation -and the manipulation of seeds, of processes and commodities markets - is only possible because most of our population is no longer involved in food production. That's not healthy.
Toby Maloney is an environmental activist living Boissevain, in the southwestern Manitoba grain belt. This article first appeared in City Magazine. - NL -

 

Be sure to keep your olive oil in dark bottles if you keep them on a shelf out in the open. I used to have a nifty clear oil bottle for mine and kept it on the shelf. Exposure to light really reduces its shelf life. I had the white streamers growing in my bottle in under 6 months. The large bottle the stuff came from is kept down in a lower cupboard and was fine for well over a year.

Byte

 

That said it is no more nutritious then any other oil used for "frying" nor is it any more harmful. Would I put in on a salad? No. KF

 

You can find 16 ounce glass jars of coconut oil at your local 99 Cent Only stores. 1 FRN per 16 ounces, not a bad deal.

99¢ Only Stores | Home | Save More, Shop Us First... For Everything!

 

coconut oil lasts longer than coonut trees. Ever go down south?

 

That's good to know, it's easy to store too. I tried a tablespoon of flax seed oil in a protein shale recently that was 6 months expired and had been sitting on the shelf, it tasted horrible.

Coconut oil may seem expensive but you use it in small quantities most likely so a 5 pound tub would probably last a long time. It also has MCT's which I read can be a good source of energy so you could even add a tablespoon to a low fat canned soup to give it more nutrients.

Edit: MCE should have been MCT.

 

Y'all got me sold - this weekend the 'Wolf goes in search of Coconut Oil!