Since 2017, a team of national and international professionals have dedicated themselves to investigating ways to stop sugaring in raisins.
Chile is one of the main producers of raisins worldwide, annually exporting this fruit to countries such as the US, Peru, Mexico and Venezuela. However, one of the main obstacles to this market is the crystallization of its sugars (a process known as sugaring), which causes a deterioration in the texture and appearance of the raisin, affecting its commercialization levels.
Within the framework of the closing of the project “Development and implementation of scientific-technological resources to solve / mitigate the problem of crystallization in the process of production and storage of raisins” , initiative supported by CONICYT, the Regional Center for Healthy Food Studies (CREAS) held the seminar “Opportunities and challenges for the Chilean raisin export industry”.
The event aimed to strengthen the science-business relationship, by disseminating the results obtained throughout the research developed around the sugaring process. The initiative was led by Paulina Urrutia , CREAS Researcher, and is executed together with the Chile Alimentos Raisin Committee , in addition to the companies Mi Fruta SA ., Gallardo Export , Frutexsa and Natural Chile SA .
The conference was opened by Francisco Rossier, Director of Innovation of the Strategic Food Transformation Program , who spoke about the possibilities of diversifying the national offer through products with added value, highlighting the network of more than 300 actors linked to the Platform’s Strategic Program.
In addition, the attendees were able to demonstrate how this project managed to improve the acceptability of export raisins and the scenario of the regional and national export industry, through the presentations of Dr. Bhesh Bhandari from University of Queensland , Australia, expert industry professionals and also CREAS researchers.
Alejandro Osses , Manager of CREAS, referred to what was presented in the seminar as a “milestone in national research, since CREAS found an effective solution to the problem of sugaring in raisins, which will increase their export volumes ”. Osses also stressed that the results of this project are expected to be disseminated mainly to the productive sector, the food industry and also to its logistics chain, in order to “deliver the tools generated by CREAS to be able to face a problem that, undoubtedly, it impacts the export market of our country ”.
LINK NEWS: creas.cl