Oil Production Tour

Cooking oils are produced at an oil mill by crushing and grinding seeds and nuts using a heavy mechanical press called a chekku machine. Because oils cannot be harvested straight from crops, this grinding process separates the natural liquid oil from the solid plant materials.

How coconut oil is produced

• A coconut is broken into two halves so that only the white inner flesh is used.
• The white portion is dried thoroughly under the sun until it becomes dried coconut, called copra (khoprai).
• The dried copra pieces are placed into the chekku grinding machine.
• The machine grinds the copra firmly until pure coconut oil is extracted and collected.

Other seeds and nuts processed for oil

• Groundnuts are poured into the chekku machine and ground thoroughly until the groundnut oil separates out for regular cooking use.
• Sesame seeds are crushed well in the machine to extract sesame oil, which is also known as gingelly oil or nallenai.
• Sunflower oil used in homes is pressed specifically from the seeds of the sunflower plant rather than from the flower itself.

How the chekku machine works

The chekku machine functions very much like a modern kitchen grinder or a traditional stone grinder found in homes. When dried plant parts, nuts, or seeds are loaded into it, the machine grinds them thoroughly under continuous motion. This heavy grinding action squeezes the plant material until the oil separates completely from the crushed solid remains.

How technology replaced animal labor

In the past, before modern powered machines were invented, people relied on cows to operate the heavy stone chekku. The cows were tied to the press and forced to walk around in circles repeatedly to grind the seeds, causing great hardship and pain to their legs. Modern mechanical technology now makes oil extraction simple, fast, and easy, producing daily cooking oil without any distress to working animals.