Raisins

One US cup of raisins weighs 145 grams, measured loose, poured into the cup. Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.69 cups.

Also called seedless raisins, sultanas, Thompson seedless raisins, dried grapes.

Raisins are dried grapes and behave in a measuring cup much like brown sugar: the pieces are small and slightly sticky from residual sugars and glycerol coating (added by many packers to prevent clumping), so they can be either poured loosely into a cup or firmly pressed to fit more mass in the same volume. Both USDA and King Arthur publish separate figures for loose and packed states, and the two sources agree well within category tolerance in both states. USDA FDC 168159 (Raisins, seedless) publishes 1 cup not packed at 145 g (0.6129 g/ml) and 1 cup packed at 165 g (0.6974 g/ml), a 14 percent difference between the two states from the same source.

King Arthur's Ingredient Weight Chart lists loose raisins at 149 g per cup and packed raisins at 85 g per half cup (170 g per cup). Cross-source agreement is 2.7 percent in the loose state and 3.0 percent in the packed state, both well inside the 5 percent tolerance for the sugar category into which this entry falls. Raisins are placed with sugar rather than in a dried-fruit category because their measuring behaviour matches brown sugar closely: both are small sticky pieces that pack meaningfully under pressure and produce a 14 to 20 percent difference between packed and unpacked states.

The category assignment is about how the substance behaves in a cup rather than about its chemical composition. When a recipe calls for one cup of raisins without specifying, the loose state is the practical default: recipes that specifically want packed will say so, following the same convention as brown sugar. Sultanas (the term used in the UK and Commonwealth for what Americans call golden raisins) weigh similarly per cup.

USDA FDC 168189 lists golden seedless raisins at the same 145 g per cup unpacked and 165 g packed. Zante currants (dried Black Corinth grapes, unrelated to the true currant berry) are smaller and pack more densely, with USDA giving 144 g per cup unpacked and 160 g packed at FDC 173946. Muscat raisins (larger, seeded, less common in the US) are heavier per cup because the individual raisins are larger and pack less air between them.

Retail raisin brands vary somewhat in moisture content within the USDA-permitted range (15 to 18 percent for standard raisins), and higher-moisture raisins are correspondingly heavier per cup. Sun-Maid, Sun-Dried, Trader Joe's and generic supermarket raisins fall within the ranges above. Chocolate-covered, yogurt-coated, cinnamon-coated and rum-soaked raisins are separate products with substantially different weights per cup and are outside the scope of this entry.

FDA identity standards under 21 CFR 145.180 specify moisture content, defect tolerances and grade requirements for raisins, but do not specify bulk density. No standards body publishes a density figure. Two sources per state agreeing within category tolerance, so this entry publishes single figures for both states and is held at medium confidence until an independent third source confirms each.