How to stop coconut oil from going bad

Coconut oil is a great ingredient and I often use it for baking, cooking and frying. It can easily replace dairy butter in most recipes and is particularly lovely in baking.

Coconut oil can be a little pricey, especially if you like to buy raw, cold-pressed or organic coconut oil, which why you want to make sure that you that you keep your coconut oil stored correctly, so that it doesn’t go off.

So, here are my top tips to stop coconut oil going bad

Use it within it’s used by date

When you buy your coconut oil, check the used by date on the side of the packaging. I sometimes write it down in big numbers somewhere on the product label to remind me.

If you do have coconut oil, that’s passed it’s sell-by date and use by date, open it and smell it first. Does it have a pleasant or not pleasant smell? If you taste it, does it have a faint coconut flavour, feels a bit oily, but otherwise has a pleasant taste?

If it does, then you are O.K to carry on using it, but if it smells rancid (sour) and the taste is bitter, don’t use it in cooking. I would probably not use it for other non-culinary uses either. Similarly like a spoiled pancake flour mix when you get the rancid smell it can’t be covered with any other flavour.

Make sure you store coconut oil correctly

The best place to store your coconut oil is a cool kitchen cupboard, out of the heat and direct sunlight. The coconut oil should be kept in an airtight container (I use to keep it in its original jar) with the lid firmly screwed in.

Avoid varying temperatures

The worse thing you can do is to store your coconut oil in different areas of your kitchen, where the temperature changes a lot. For example, keeping the coconut oil in the fridge one day, then leaving it out next to the oven to melt, then forgetting it on the window sill where the sun is shining on the bottle all day or placing it in the cupboard where it’s very humid (like next to a sink)

Always use a clean spoon to take out the coconut oil

When taking out the coconut oi from the jar, always use a clean spoon to make sure you prevent any cross-contamination or don’t leave any bits of other ingredients in the oil, that could eventually go off and then start spoiling the coconut oil.