I have a box of raisins in my cabinet that have been there for many years. Should I discard them or can they still be salvaged for use in baking or cooking?
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5 Answers
According to this Sun Maid specification sheet, the shelf life is up to one year, and they contain about 15% water.
This is probably not sufficiently dehydrated for truly long term storage, and mold would be a risk. Also, if they did dry further in storage they would be rock hard, and probably quite nasty.
answered Mar 16, 2013 at 17:10
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Some raisins have also been coated with vegetable oil (usually sunflower oil) which can go rancid quicker than raisins will dry out.– citizenMar 17, 2013 at 16:38
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2Almost all dates on packages are 'best by', but they have no idea what conditions you're storing it at. Also, it's when you can tell a difference, but the question asked if they could still be used for other purposes.– JoeMar 18, 2013 at 0:58
I just found a pack of Sun-maid that were dated 05 04 00. Opened them up & tried a couple , not too bad . And not hard at all.
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2I don't know if I've ever let them go quite that far ... but I've had ones that were in the 2-3 year range. If they're in a well-sealed container (mine had been transfered to a pastic container), and didn't get extra humidity in there, dried fruit can last a very long time.– JoeOct 6, 2014 at 14:53
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2Wow. You ate 16 year old raisins for Seasoned Advice? I'm not surprised at your immediate positive response. But a day or two forward.. did you get the sh--s?– PaulbApr 2, 2016 at 23:07
They usually spray the raisins with Sulphites to preserve them. The ones with sulphites look a little shiny whereas the ones without look a little chalky (but taste better to me).
If your cabinet is not very humid, chances are they have not gone bad. Otherwise you might see 'signs of life'.
However, the good shelf life of raisins is about a year. They are likely to carry an off taste and mess with your cooking/baking flavours.
answered Mar 16, 2013 at 17:08
Maybe after we have inspected the raisins, and they still look good, (have no mold whatsoever, using a magnifying glass), we can use them in baking of cookies, cakes, etc. In fact, just to make sure, we can probably boil them first (to soften them), and then add the drained raisins to our cookie, cake, etc. batter. Just a thought. I have a package of boxed raisins that I've had for a couple of years. (Now that I've thought about and posted this, I'm going to inspect them and boil them first before adding to my pancake batter.)
In the refridgerator they last for years. A lot longer than you might think.