The density of olive oil undergoes changes with temperature. As a result, the sale price of olive oil in wholesale markets is in kg.
However, olive oil is sold to the consumer in liters.
How much does a liter of oil weigh?
The weight of a liter of oil can be increased by 2% and reduced by more than 10% with temperature variations. At elevated temperatures, olive oil expands occupying a greater volume and decreasing density. Conversely, at low temperatures the olive oil contracts weighing more every liter of extra virgin olive oil.
At room temperature, a liter of olive oil weighs approximately 916 grams .
How much can olive oil grow in the pan?
It is quite common to hear chefs that olive oil grows in the pan. It is true? Have you checked?
We will consider how much a liter of oil weighs ()
that the density of olive oil at 20 ° C is 0.916 kg / liter.
On the other hand, we know that frying with olive oil is done at approximately 180- 200ºC. At this temperature, the density of the oil decreases to 0.80-0.81 kg / liter.
There are no appreciable differences in the density of the different types of olive oil ( Picual, Arbequina, Hojiblanca , Cornicabra …).
We calculate the specific volume of the oil
If we transform the kg / liter to liters / kg, we have the following specific volume (inverse density) measures of olive oil:
Specific volume of olive oil at 20ºC: 1,092 liters / kg.
On the other hand, with olive oil at 200ºC: 1.25 liters per kilogram.
This means a 15% increase in the volume of olive oil. Very to consider if for example we are going to fill a deep fryer with oil.
What happens to the density of olive oil when it cools?
Now we are going to assume that the temperature of a carafe of olive oil drops from 20 to 0ºC.
In this case, the density of extra virgin olive oil at 0ºC is 0.929 kg/liter.
As we saw earlier, at 20ºC the oil has a density of 0.916 kg/liter.
We transform the density of olive oil to specific volume
Again, we will pass kg/liter to liters/kg, obtaining the following specific volume measurements for olive oil:
Specific volume of olive oil at 20ºC: 1,092 liters/kg.
On the other hand, the volume of oil at 0ºC: 1,076 liters per kilogram.
This means a volume reduction of approximately 1.5%.
It is common if we keep the olive oil in a cold place, which is appreciated, as when lowering the temperature the volume is reduced and the density of the olive oil increases.
When the bottles or bottles of olive oil are tightly closed. The vacuum can be observed if the olive oil was packed at a temperature higher than what we are.
Recommended reading
Picual or Hojiblanca olive oil?
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How many kilos of olives can an olive produce?
Warning
We have translated the information on our website from Spanish to English. Note that some words may have seen their meaning altered during their translation.