Production Process
Once a year, from January to March, the shea trees flower and grow fist-sized shea fruits. When they are ripe between May and July, they fall to the ground where they are gathered by hand by the harvesters, mostly women.
After collecting the fruits, they remove the flesh as soon as possible using only the glossy shea nut. After drying the whole nut, the women crack the outer shell andtake out the kernels. These are sundried again and then ready for oil production. Nilotica shea butter is still very much a small-scale industry in Uganda where artisan production methods are highly valued.
Chemical extraction is currently not used by any of the producers.
The 3 following extraction methods are applied:
1. Traditional extraction
The shea kernels are mixed with ashes and roasted over an open wood fire until they are grey and brittle. Then they are pounded into a fine powder before being mixed with water and boiled for several hours before being left to cool. Once cooled the oil will float on top and is skimmed off. This oil is brownish in colour and has a strong nutty smell and taste. In Northern Uganda it is used both for skincare for babies and as cooking oil or food condi ment. However, the cosmetic use is limited due to the strong scent.
2. Mechanical extraction
The shea kernels are roasted before being ground into a coarse powder.
Then this powder is fed into a mechanical press which is manually operated to apply pressure to the powder to squeeze out the oil.
This oil has a mild brown colour and a light nutty scent. This butter is mainly used for cosmetics in the national and regional markets.
3. Cold press extraction
The whole nuts are fed straight into a cold press. They are not roasted or boiled. The cold press squeezes out the oil. The resulting oil is golden in colour, and once settled down in a bucket, it turns into an ivory white butter. Since the nuts have not been heated and the temperature during the entire process does not exceed 70°C, the unique bio-active fraction remains intact. On the international market, this is the mostcommon type and is mainly used for cosmetics, either pure or as an ingredient
4. Refined or unrefined?
The above methods all yield unrefined, raw, Nilotica shea butter.
After extraction it is possible to refine the shea butter to remove the colour and scent and yield a uniform, scentless, white Nilotica shea butter. However, due to the small volumes produced and the loss in healing properties incurred during this process (up to 75 %)
this is not currently done in Uganda.
standards mentioned above are not mandatory standards, they provide guidance but are not mandated. Therefore, products may differ from these standards. It is recommended to always ask for a Technical Data Sheet (TDS) and Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) to understand the specifications of the product provided by the producer and supplier and to check if these are in line with the needs.
To assess the quality of both unrefined Nilotica shea butter and unrefined West African shea butter the following parameters are generally used (UNBS 1931:2019, FAO & WHO, CXS 325-R2017).
