Shea butter oil press

Shea butter is extracted from the fruit of the African "golden tree" shea tree. It is rich in vitamins A, E and unsaturated fatty acids and is widely used in cosmetics, food and medicine. With the explosive growth of the global natural skin care market, the demand for shea butter continues to rise. As the core equipment for achieving efficient conversion of shea resources, shea butter press helps companies increase production capacity, reduce costs and ensure product quality through physical cold pressing or traditional process optimization.

Shea butter has a high content and is concentrated in the kernel. In Africa, shea butter is mainly produced by traditional water substitution and pressing methods. The water substitution method has a long production cycle, small production scale, high cost and low oil yield, and has gradually been replaced by mechanical pressing. The pressing method uses the extrusion force of the press to squeeze the oil out of the raw materials, usually including shea butter drying, shelling, crushing, cooking and pressing.

Screw pressing is a widely used method for extracting vegetable oils, and is also suitable for extracting shea butter from shea nuts. The use of screw pressing to extract shea butter has the advantages of high production capacity, high oil extraction efficiency, and continuous and stable oil extraction process. However, the oil and oil cake extracted by this process are darker in color and contain more impurities, so they must be refined before use.

Shea butter oil extraction process:

Raw material pretreatment: First, the harvested shea nuts are cleaned and sorted to select high-quality fruits, laying the foundation for subsequent processing.

Kernel extraction and kernel processing: The cleaned shea nuts are processed to remove the pulp and obtain the kernels (i.e. seeds). The cleaned shea seeds are shelled with a peeling machine to obtain pure kernels.

Oil extraction process: The peeled seeds are crushed, fried, and then pressed using an oil press to finally obtain shea butter.

Residue utilization and refining and purification: After the oil pressing operation is completed, the remaining residue can be reused as feed. At the same time, the squeezed shea butter must go through a series of processes such as refining, bleaching, and degumming to obtain refined shea butter with better quality.

Grade classification: It is worth noting that different shea butter processing techniques will lead to differences in the quality of the final product. Currently, shea butter on the market is divided into five grades according to quality: Grade A (representing unrefined shea butter), Grade B (refined shea butter), Grade C (highly refined shea butter), Grade D (shea butter that meets the minimum pollution-free standards) and Grade E (contaminated shea butter).

Color classification: In addition, shea butter can be divided into three different color types according to its quality characteristics: ivory white, milky white and yellow.

In countries where shea trees are widely planted, investing in a factory that specializes in producing high-quality shea butter will undoubtedly bring considerable business returns to the company. With its excellent value, shea butter has broad application prospects in many industries such as cosmetics, food, and medicine.

As a leading edible oil pressing equipment supplier in China, QIE GROUP has deep accumulation and rich experience in shea butter extraction technology. We provide a variety of oil pressing technologies and advanced equipment to meet the personalized needs of different customers in shea butter processing.

If you are interested in this machine or shea butter oil production line, or want to know more about our technical solutions, please feel free to contact us. We look forward to working with you to create a better future.