Blue Planet Organics Reveals How Shea Butter Is Made

Raw Shea butter is produce primarily by hand manually in Central Africa.

The nuts from this tree are harvested, cracked, grilled and pounded. The Shea tree ground throughout central Africa. A great deal of the Shea is cultivated in Ghana. It is estimated that nine hundred thousand women are involved in the production of raw Shea butter which is shipped to the US, Europe and parts of Asia. The process of creating Shea Butter is labor intensive mainly done manually with all human labor and primarily by women. The labor intensive process is to harvest the green fruit with a nut inside.

The nut is collected as they lay on the ground after falling from the tree. The nut is the magic which the women bring back to the village. They are then boiled for 30 minutes and subsequently air cooled. Once the nuts are cooled they can be cracked and individually removed from the shell. They separate out the good nuts pound them into pieces and fry them. The next step is to grind the Shea with a mortar, pestle, or between two stones. In some cases this is done with a mechanical mill until the contents of the nut is ground into a brown paste. They then mix the butter continuously by hand with water manually until the Shea oil floats on top. It is now light brown to beige. They then put this separated oil under a wood fire until it boils. The pure Shea butter rises to the top and they scoop it into another pot. This is done continually until all the Shea butter rises to the top, and then it is allowed to cool into an ivory off white, or yellowish butter.

Blue Planet Organics acquires the most natural Grade A unrefined Shea available. The company said this raw natural Shea they buy is then shipped to New York where it is inspected and stored. Once the Shea has passed inspection it is separated from blocks and warmed so it can pour into jars. This last step is the only part done by US labor and with any mechanical means. This allows for an all organic, natural raw Shea butter with no additives or preservatives. Refined Shea has additives and preservatives, which will change the complexity of the butter.

This process of providing raw unrefined Shea is much different than most over the counter beauty products. Most beauty products used and purchased in the US and Europe involve manufacturing processes with factories in China, or the West. The company said that Shea really is in its infancy in regards to how if it made available to the US. It is a big African export and as noted it is done within villages without electronics and done 90% by hand abroad.  If a person wish to learn more then type blue planet organics in Google, Bing, Facebook, Youtube or on Amazon.