Keuringsdienst van Waarde investigates: why are raisins so much cheaper than grapes?
Grapes are delicious, but I don’t exactly consider them an inexpensive healthy snack. In that case, you’re probably better off choosing raisins. They’re cheaper, even though they’re basically just dried grapes. Right? So how is it that the price difference between raisins and grapes is so great? Keuringsdienst van Waarde investigated.
These days, you’ll easily pay €5.50 for a kilo of grapes. Never mind that a small bunch of grapes was once sold for 10,000… By comparison, a kilo of raisins costs just €2.50. Quite a difference. What’s more, you get far more raisins from a given amount of grapes—sometimes as much as 25 times more. We find that strange. Are we consumers simply being ripped off? Or are we—as Keuringsdienst van Waarde puts it so beautifully—just a bunch of cheapskates?
Sunbathing raisins
To understand the difference, we first need to take a closer look at the processes involved in handling grapes and raisins. Raisins become so shriveled because they are dried in the sun for three weeks. An extremely long sunbathing session—in that case, we would shrivel up too. After weeks of sunbathing, they are taken to the factory, where their stems are removed and they are packaged. The process for golden raisins is slightly different. They do not lie drying in the sun for weeks; instead, they are sprayed with sulfur and then put in the oven. That gives them their pale color.
A beautiful grape
Almost any grape can be turned into a raisin. That is why growers can often harvest 100% of the grapes destined to become raisins. But that does not apply to the white and red grapes you buy in the store. Have you ever noticed how beautiful those grapes look? They shine, are almost all the same size and wonderfully plump. A rigorous selection process precedes that. Only the most beautiful grapes in the class are picked, after being thoroughly supplied with water. This means that growers throw around 30 percent of the harvest in the trash.
Perishable and labor-intensive
So that selection process for grapes is quite meticulous. On top of that, grapes are much more perishable than raisins. They need to be kept chilled and transported to the store as quickly as possible so they stay nice and fresh. Raisins are ‘simply’ packaged and remain good for a very long time. And there’s something else: growing grapes is much more labor-intensive than producing raisins. The latter is done almost entirely by machine.
Are raisins your go-to snack? Be careful, though, because recent research shows that many raisins are heavily contaminated with pesticides. Action is already being taken, but keep a close eye on what you buy.
Also read:
- Ideal: with this hack, all the grapes come off the bunch at once
- Recipe: drunken grapes from the freezer
- What is the difference between raisins and currants?
Source: KRO-NCRV/Keuringsdienst van Waarde
