Sunday, November 13, 2011

From The TESR Test Kitchens

Reader Cody e-mailed October 17th to ask if we'd noticed anything about his favorite snack, Sun Maid Yogurt Raisins. For those not familiar with the snack, these are raisins (dried grapes) with a yogurt coated shell. Other popular snacks with yogurt coating include pretzels and cranberries.

raisins

Cody wasn't specific about his problem, in fact he was vague. When Jim followed up with an e-mail asking him what was different about the snack, Cody replied, "Just try some and see if you notice."

So we did. We had some trying them on the West Coast and some on the East Coast and Ava, C.I., Kat and Wally trying them across the country.

What quickly became obvious is that Sun Maid must have laid off those responsible for checking quality and consistency.

If a San Francisco super market, for example, sells a package of Sun Maid Yogurt Raisins in which they're all stuck together in one hard clump, then it could be just that package or that store. But when it happens in Boston, in Conneticut, in Chicago, in DC, in Maryland, in Virginia . . .

It quickly becomes obvious that the problem isn't one bag or one store, the problem is Sun Maid's quality control.

Like Cody, we can go through a bag of yogurt raisins in a half-hour easy. But that's provided they're worth eating. These days Sun Maid's aren't.
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