You've probably seen or heard about – or tasted – cold pressed juices. Now, the technology behind the health craze is making its way into the wellness world by way of personal care products.
To learn more, we spoke with two experts: Annie Lawless, co-founder of Suja juices, and Kat Burki, founder of her eponymous lifestyle brand.
"Cold Pressure, also known as High Pressure Processing (HPP), retains food quality, maintains natural freshness and extends microbiological shelf life without heating to high temperatures," says Lawless of Suja, the juice brand that began with the goal of helping people transform their lives through conscious nutrition.
After each Suja Juice is bottled, a high level of cold pressure is evenly applied. This ultimately works to "destroy pathogens, ensuring the juice is safe to drink, while preserving vitamins, enzymes and nutrients."
Also referred to as Pascalization, HPP is a method of preserving packaged food products using extremely high pressure. According to the ColdPressured site, "the process leads to the elimination of harmful bacteria while maintaining a higher yield of vitamins, minerals and enzymes, and preserving a fresher taste."
All products are subjected to pressures between 100 and 800 MPa. The technology behind commercial cold pressured products typically involve Hiperbaric High Pressure Processing machines.
Kat Burki found another innovative way to utilize the technology — cold pressing personal care products. Having studied nutrition in college, she developed a passion for health, wellness and nutrition. While working as health care attorney, Burki collaborated with a scientist and epidemiologist on researching the rise of environmental and food related diseases.
She tells us: "I possessed a good understanding of the degrading effects that over-processing and heat have on nutrients, vitamins and antioxidants."
Burki began experimenting with ingredients "recognized for their profound ability to nourish and protect the skin, help to repair free radical damaged skin cells," while developing multi-platform co-factors to aid in efficient enzyme function.
According to Burki, "cold process" applies to how the ingredients are integrated, whereas "cold pressing" refers to the distilling of oils from its source. "Cold poured" refers to how oils are mixed into the rest of the ingredient deck.
Many personal care products are subjected to several levels of over-heating and over-processing in their creation, causing vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and oils to be devoid of value. By contrast, the delicate amino acids, plant cells, vitamins and other nutrient-dense ingredients that have been cold poured and processed will possess a higher levels of nutrients — which translates to the highest level of efficacy.
"Oils that are cold pressed, poured and processed possess higher level of nutrients and anti-aging benefits than those heated," says Burki. The benefits from the cold pressure technology allow for greater results, assisting the growth of thriving, healthy new skin cells.
Personal care products should be healing, not harming, which is why this tapping into this technology makes sense.
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