topic Golden Raisins? in Recipes

Golden Raisins?

kismet — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 08:55:59 GMT

I am so disappointed in the Sun-Maid golden raisins this year. I have been using these for fruitcake forever and this year i have found leaves, sticks and seeds in the raisins. Can anyone recommend a different brand of golden raisins. It's sad when something that was so good has gone downhill. There are a lot of dark raisins in it too and I need one lb for the cakes. I went through 3/4 of a lb and had just had it. Took so much longer than I had planned. Has anyone else found these raisins to be a problem. By the way the outside of the box says sticks, leaves, stems could be in the box. I expect the stems cause there have always been some but never saw so many leaves and sticks.

Re: Golden Raisins?

CelticCrafter — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 09:31:27 GMT

I don't think I've ever seen any other brands of raisins in the supermarket except for Sun-Maid and the store brand.

Same thing for cranberry sauce, it's either Ocean Spray or store brand.

Re: Golden Raisins?

Sweet_Serenity — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 09:59:06 GMT

Amazon if not in your supermarket.

Re: Golden Raisins?

kismet — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 10:09:24 GMT

Thanks for telling me about Trader Joes. I use to go there all the time but haven't in years. I don't go by there anymore so never think of going. I do like a lot of things from there but being retired just don't go out as much. I'm glad that the raisins are in clear plastic bags cause I would like to see the colors too. All the grocery stores in my area only carry the Sun-Maid.

Re: Golden Raisins?

CinNC — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 10:23:19 GMT

You didn't purchase them at Walmart, did you? Brother of a friend used to do government inspections at vegetable processing plants. She jokingly complained to him about the plant debris found in a bag of frozen vegetables from Walmart. He told her that even though the bag looked the same as what was in the grocery stores, the quality standards were lower for those packaged for Walmart.

Re: Golden Raisins?

January121 — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 12:35:50 GMT

Thanks for letting us know .... I suggest you call Sun Maid customer service (the # should be on the box) & let them know what you found ..... if you don’t complain they will never know & nothing will improve. 😄

Re: Golden Raisins?

novamc1 — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 12:54:35 GMT

Not a raisin-lover or user myself, but my husband buys Sun Maid dark raisins at Costco and uses them in his cereal. We're not regular Aldi shoppers, but he recently tried out raisins from the nearby Aldi's and says he is disappointed in the quality. Aldi's raisins come in a container that looks almost like the Sun Maid label.

Aldi's is owned by Trader Joe's, and perhaps both get the raisins from the same source.

Weather has been crazy in many agricultural areas and might have affected raisin quality. No excuse for selling raisins with stems or other junk in them, however. I would complain to the company.

Re: Golden Raisins?

CelticCrafter — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 13:16:34 GMT

@novamc1 wrote:
Not a raisin-lover or user myself, but my husband buys Sun Maid dark raisins at Costco and uses them in his cereal. We're not regular Aldi shoppers, but he recently tried out raisins from the nearby Aldi's and says he is disappointed in the quality. Aldi's raisins come in a container that looks almost like the Sun Maid label.

Aldi's is owned by Trader Joe's, and perhaps both get the raisins from the same source.

Weather has been crazy in many agricultural areas and might have affected raisin quality. No excuse for selling raisins with stems or other junk in them, however. I would complain to the company.

All of Aldi's products are packaged to look like the national name brand.

Re: Golden Raisins?

deepwaterdotter — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 15:33:26 GMT

I have successfully baked with the "Champion" brand of golden raisins. I buy them at my local grocery in the produce department.

Re: Golden Raisins?

Sooner — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 15:53:00 GMT

We used 2 packages yesterday that were fine and they were from a large local grocery store (five BIG stores in our area) chain. No problem there.

I do know for a fact that a lot of food processors package foods like canned foods for many stores, slapping different labels on the different cans. However, they do process batches of different qualities, so some brands have different standards.

Your peas may be different sizes or the dried beans you buy bagged may have more splits in them for the cheaper brands. They may have lots of irregular cuts or sizes in the green beans. Some may still have a stem attached, etc.

If you look carefully (especially in dried beans, rice, etc. sometimes) you will see differences you might not have noticed before.

If things are cheaper, there is usually a reason. May or may not matter to you.

Re: Golden Raisins?

BirdieGal — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 17:53:27 GMT

In one of the stores I shop I buy a rainbow mix of raisins. They are sold in bulk and are a local product. They are a mix of large Golden’s, ruby, dark and a smaller darker golden.

They are the best raisins ever. I use them in baking, trail mix, cereal. Anything I would use any raisins for.

Re: Golden Raisins?

CinNC — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 00:26:09 GMT

Funny you should mention Rainbow Raison, BirdieGal. I just saw some on the nuts dot com website

Re: Golden Raisins?

kismet — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 10:04:13 GMT

I did take pictures of the junk in the raisins and will send them with an email to the company. I remember looking at Walmart at their fruit for fruitcake and decided to buy it from amazon because I like a particular brand. I'm not sure if I got the raisins there since I got them over a month ago but after reading the replies I won't be buying that brand again anywhere. I do remember when the golden raisins were all golden and not brown to black and except for a few stems they were very clean. I always go to the source of the problem since I feel they have to know there is a problem. I guess they feel if there is no other choice in the grocery store people will buy it.

Thanks for all the replies.

Re: Golden Raisins?

NorthernLights — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 10:29:20 GMT

The golden SunMaid raisins used to be all my kids would eat. It's strange now that I would have to pick through them like lentils for errant stones or debris.

Re: Golden Raisins?

VaBelle35 — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 11:09:46 GMT

If you still have the bag, the lot number will help them know what batch/factory/farm they came from and when they were produced.

I have had to write to Cascadian Farms for packages of organic frozen peaches that were not ripe. The peaches were like rocks after they were thawed.

I also had to write to Mighty Leaf tea because I got 2 boxes of earl grey tea that had no bergamot.

I hate to complain, but when I pay $5 and $7 respectively for something I can't use, I need to let them know. Now both Wegmans and Mom's Organic refunded them with no issues at all. But I wanted to make sure the company knew about it as well.

Re: Golden Raisins?

ECBG — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 22:35:37 GMT

@novamc1 wrote:
Not a raisin-lover or user myself, but my husband buys Sun Maid dark raisins at Costco and uses them in his cereal. We're not regular Aldi shoppers, but he recently tried out raisins from the nearby Aldi's and says he is disappointed in the quality. Aldi's raisins come in a container that looks almost like the Sun Maid label.

Aldi's is owned by Trader Joe's, and perhaps both get the raisins from the same source.

Weather has been crazy in many agricultural areas and might have affected raisin quality. No excuse for selling raisins with stems or other junk in them, however. I would complain to the company.

@novamc1,I've never had a problem with Sun Maid at home or in my Foods or Adv Foods classes.