Olive oil: why 200 g per cup is wrong
King Arthur Baking publishes 200 g per US cup of olive oil. This site rejects that figure and publishes 216 g instead, from USDA FoodData Central (density 0.913 g/mL, matching the composition of the substance). The reason:
0.8455 g/ml falls 7.1% below the Codex Alimentarius range of 0.910-0.916 at 20C. Olive oil is a liquid with no packing state, so no measuring method can account for the gap. The figure cannot be correct for olive oil at any normal temperature.
The arithmetic
| Source | 1 cup | Density | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| King Arthur Baking | 200 g | 0.8455 g/mL | Rejected on physics |
| USDA FoodData Central | 216 g | 0.913 g/mL | Published here |
The independent standard
Where an independent physical standard exists for a substance, a source figure that falls outside it is rejected on the standard rather than on general physics. For olive oil, the applicable standard is Codex Alimentarius, which specifies both a composition and a density range for the substance. A cup weight implying a density outside that range cannot be a measurement of the standard-conforming substance; either the source measured something else, or the number is an arithmetic artifact carried over from a unit-conversion mistake. Full standards citation and reasoning is on the ingredient page.
The published figure and its sources
The full sourcing for olive oil, including every accepted and rejected figure, the state or filling method behind each, and the physics or standards reasoning applied, is on the ingredient page.
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