The Future Of Raisin Production
January 1, 2008 Uniform brownness with yellow-red hues, homogeneous size with fine wrinkles, moist and chewy texture, with rich sweet caramel flavor containing hints of spice and a slight astringency. What are we describing? In the raisin industry we have now progressed to formal tasting panels to better understand our products and the unique characteristics of raisins made from different varieties using different techniques to dry grapes into raisins. Between 35% and 40% of the world’s dried grapes (raisins) are produced in California’s San Joaquin Valley. For the last 80 years, the vast majority of California’s raisins have been made from Thompson Seedless grapevines, using a traditional drying process where field workers manually harvest clusters of mature grapes and lay them on paper trays, between the vine rows, to dry.
This traditional approach to producing raisins is very labor intensive. With the realization that the production of raisins would one day be limited by the availability and cost of labor, research efforts began in the 1950s to develop mechanized raisin harvesting.
New Varieties And Drying Methods
Twenty-five years ago, a raisin was a raisin; all raisins were made from Thompson Seedless grapevines and all were tray dried in the field. Research and development work has now given us more than six different seedless varieties of grapes that can be made into raisins and three different commercial techniques that can be used to produce raisins. And with different combinations of varieties and harvesting methods, the sensory descriptors (the appearance, flavor, and texture) of the raisins produced do change.
Using established scientific protocols for tasting foods, researchers with the University of California have been conducting replicated, blind tasting panels to gain a better understanding of the flavor profiles and characteristics of raisins produced from different varieties and different drying methods. What is emerging is that the appearance, flavor, and texture of raisins are uniquely different depending on the grape variety and the method of drying. Further, the drying method used does not necessarily impart the same characteristics to a given variety — quite a complicated interrelationship.
Consumer Preferences
Consumer preference trials are also underway to help understand the potential markets for various raisin varieties and drying methods. An initial study involving 120 raisin consumers (persons who eat raisins at least once per week) identified seven different cluster groups (groups of persons who had the similar likes and dislikes). And this study involved only two grape varieties and two drying methods.
It is fortunate that the raisin industry in California is recognizing the need to better understand their product and consumer preference. These understandings will help guide growers with respect to what varieties should be planted and which harvesting/drying methods should be employed.
In the meantime, growers are rapidly mechanizing their production. In 2007, an estimated 47% of raisins are being produced using some level of mechanization. These include the “continuous tray” and “dried-on-the-vine” (DOV) methods. In 1997, “traditional tray” drying represented 99% of the raisin production from the San Joaquin Valley and 10 years later it represents only about 53% of the production.
Perhaps one day we will shop for raisins by looking at the back of the package to read the description of the raisins in the package just like we read the back side of a wine bottle.
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