Common Name: Copra meal, copra cake, coconut meal, coconut cake, expeller copra meal, expeller copra cake
Scientific Name: Cocos nucifera L
Feed Categories: Oil plants and by-products
Physical Characteristics:
Coconut cake is the flakes or cakes, obtained after the removal of oil from coconut, by solvent or extraction methods. The color is light brown to brown. Odor is nut-like pleasant resembling roasted coconut. Not musty, burnt and rancid.
Production/ Availability:
The coconuts are dehusked, split in half, drained of coconut water; then the halves are exposed to the sun for about a week, until the copra contains 6-8% water. Sun-drying is the cheapest method but if the weather is wet there is a risk of mold growth and aflatoxin contamination. Solar dryers reduce drying time and give products less likely to be contaminated. Coconut husks and shells can be used as fuel for artificial drying on bamboo grill platforms. In this case, direct exposure to smoke may give a light brown colour to copra and oil. Dryers equipped with a steel plate base give cleaner products. The dried copra is ground, flaked and cooked until moisture is brought down to 3%. The oil is mechanically extracted from the flakes using an expeller machine, resulting in nearly colorless oil and a copra cake containing about 7% oil.