It means the oil was separated by pressure instead of chemicals. “Cold-pressed” and “mechanically extracted” are both used in the industry for that idea, and neither is tightly regulated. What matters more is whether a chemical solvent was used, and where and how fast the oil was separated from the krill.
Captains Krill Oil™ is cold-pressed, which is to say mechanically extracted on the boat, with no chemical solvent, no supercritical CO2 and no hexane.
Why shoppers are searching this phrase
People searching “cold pressed krill oil” are usually asking a good question in the only words they have. They have seen cold-pressed on olive oil and flaxseed oil, and they want the same signal: was this made the gentle way? The honest answer is that krill is a different animal from an olive. Fresh krill is small, soft, mostly water and shell, and carries only a few percent oil by weight.
How krill oil is actually made
A 2024 review of Antarctic krill oil in Food Production, Processing and Nutrition (read it here) lays out the main routes. Four come up again and again: chemical-solvent routes, supercritical or subcritical fluid extraction, enzyme-assisted extraction, and mechanical, solvent-free separation.
Chemical-solvent routes. The most-used lab and industrial approach is a two-step ethanol-then-acetone pass. In the review’s figures it gave a lipid yield of about 2.6%, against about 2.2% for acetone alone. It works, and it recovers a lot of oil. It also means a solvent has been in contact with the oil, and a later step has to take it back out.
Supercritical CO2. Often described as gentle and solvent-free. The review notes it is not ideal for pulling out phospholipids on its own, and that adding a little ethanol (5 to 20%) improves that. Capacity and equipment cost limit how widely it is used.
Enzymatic. Proteases break the krill down so the oil releases. Gentle, but the review notes long hydrolysis times, one patent describes 4 to 24 hours, and high cost.
Mechanical, solvent-free. Here the review is blunt: fresh krill is “not inherently suited” to conventional pressing the way oilseeds are. The krill is typically made into a slurry and separated, with centrifuges doing much of the work, and the oil can emulsify. It is described as less efficient than the chemical-solvent routes, and one cited method reported a yield of only about 2.1%.
That last point is why mechanical krill oil is the harder, less efficient route, and part of why it costs what it costs. Pressing krill is not like pressing olives. The review also notes that high operating temperatures may lead to oxidation, which is why temperature and speed matter more than the adjective.
What “mechanical” means on our boat
Captains krill is harvested in the Southern Antarctic Ocean with a continuous pumping system, and the catch goes straight into mechanical extraction on the boat. Pressure and separation, nothing added. No chemical solvent, no supercritical CO2, no hexane. The full walk-through is in Boat to Bottle.
What we are claiming is narrow and checkable: no solvent, extracted at the point of catch, bottled in small batches. We don’t publish a processing-temperature figure, and you should ask any seller for theirs. This is a natural catch, so lots vary a little. We test lots at random and they come back strong, and documentation is available on request.
Five questions to ask any krill oil seller
These beat any adjective on the front of the bottle:
- Was a chemical solvent used at any stage, and which one?
- Where was the oil extracted: on the vessel at catch, or onshore after freezing and storage?
- How long between catch and extraction, and between extraction and capsule?
- Is the astaxanthin the krill’s own, or added back?
- What documentation can you show, and for which lots?
If you want the solvent question in depth, we answered it in Is krill oil extracted with hexane? For how freshness shows up in the bottle, see Does krill oil expire? and What does fresh krill oil smell like?. For dose, see how much krill oil per day.
You might not need us
Extraction method is a legitimate way to choose between krill oils, but it isn’t the only one, and it isn’t a health claim. A krill oil made with a solvent by a reputable maker is still krill oil, with the same phospholipid-bound omega-3s. If your priority is price, or you eat oily fish twice a week and have no gap to fill, you may not need a supplement at all, ours included. Buy for the gap, not the adjective.
Frequently asked questions
Is cold-pressed krill oil a real thing?
Yes. Cold-pressed and mechanically extracted are both used in the industry for oil separated by pressure with no chemical solvent. Neither term is tightly regulated, so ask the seller how and where the oil was separated.
Is mechanical extraction the same as cold pressing?
In practice the two terms are used for the same idea: the oil is separated by physical force, pressure and separation, with no chemical solvent. Cold-pressed is the shopper-friendly name; mechanical extraction is the process description.
Does solvent-free krill oil mean it has no processing at all?
No. Solvent-free means no chemical solvent was used to pull the oil out. The krill still has to be caught, processed and encapsulated, and how fast that happens matters for freshness.
Is supercritical CO2 krill oil bad?
No. Supercritical CO2 is a clean, well-run process and we don’t claim it is unsafe. It is a different product path: onshore, with more steps and more time between the animal and the capsule.
How can I tell how my krill oil was extracted?
Read the label and the seller’s site for the actual method, not just adjectives like pure or natural. If it isn’t stated, ask. A seller who won’t say how the oil was made is telling you something.
Honest answer, not a pitch. — captainskrilloil.com