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OUR STORY

From its family ranch in California’s San Joaquin Valley, Traina® Foods grows, sun dries and produces premium sun dried fruit for Industrial Ingredient and Foodservice customers around the world.

That’s what we do. Why we do it is another story.

Traina® Foods was founded on traditions our family brought from the old world, including time-honored methods of sun drying tomatoes and a food-lover’s belief in the slower-is-better lifestyle.

Then we grew with California, harnessing the vast energy of its sun, enlisting its spirit of technological innovation, including sustainable and organic farming, zero food waste and solar energy.

OUR HERITAGE

How to Grow A Family Business

Our story began when our grandparents, Joe and Maria Traina emigrated from Italy to the orchards of the Santa Clara Valley in its pre-Silicon Valley days, bringing the Southern Italian tradition of sun drying fruit to give them a rich, intense flavor. The family moved to a ranch in California’s San Joaquin Valley, near Patterson — the “Apricot Capital of the World” — and in 1926 we began drying and selling fruit.

We found something special in California’s San Joaquin Valley; a rare combination of sun, soil and spirit. The front porch at the ranch house soon became a place for family, friends and co-workers to sit back and share the day’s events. You can see the porch featured in our logo, and in the lifestyle we still embrace.

By 1976, the company was incorporated as it expanded from a local farming and sun drying operation. As Traina Dried Fruit, we began supplying customers throughout North America with a variety of premium quality California Sun dried fruits.

Sparking a Healthy Trend

Traina was busy setting a new flavor standard for California Sun Dried Fruit. We were particularly proud or our Sun Dried Tomatoes, showcasing the difference our natural slow-drying technique brought to the table. When we tried selling our Sun Dried Tomatoes to the restaurant industry in the late-1980s, the product was virtually unheard of. Going door to door to demonstrate the remarkable flavor of Traina Sun Dried Tomatoes directly to chefs, the new generation of Trainas sparked the sun dried tomato revolution; from unknown quantity to gourmet food staple.

It was the start of a bigger trend toward better food and healthier eating. Meanwhile, another revolution was taking place at neighboring Silicon Valley. Embracing the spirit of innovation from our own Santa Clara roots, we enlisted the latest state-of-the-art technology to better ensure quality control throughout our vertically integrated process.

Quality-First Mentality

Employing nearly 400 people from our communities, we utilize advanced technologies and quality control measures to produce at scale and meet demand, but we adhere to “slower-is-better,” natural sun drying to bring out the rich flavor of our fruits. This approach to exceptional quality garnered Traina Foods the highest rating possible of a certified AA rating from the Brand Reputation through Compliance Global Standard, or BRC-GS, recognized worldwide as the leading certification standard for food safety and responsibility. Furthermore, our quality and safety assurance process incorporates sophisticated technologies, including metal detection, x-ray detection systems, color sorting, and stringent visual inspection and in-house lab testing. Our lab is fully equipped to verify and control processes to meet customer-specific certificate of analysis needs.  Additionally, we have in-house refrigeration and freezer capacity to ensure product quality.

Moving Forward, Naturally through Sustainability

Traina® Foods remains headquartered at the original ranch house in Patterson.  While we continue to expand our offerings to major suppliers worldwide, Traina Foods best-practice approaches enable maximize output of quality fruit while minimizing energy consumption and carbon footprint. Our dry yards and processing plant are 100% solar-powered. As a result, we process more fruit with less energy than any other manufacturer in our industry. We incorporate recycling systems throughout our plants and utilize fruit byproducts, including juices and pits, to achieve zero food waste across our operations.

We continue to be a pioneer in natural farming techniques, pursuing a leadership position in the production of organic dried fruit, in sustainable farming and in business practices that ensure healthy growth for future generations.

Just as our Grandparents would have wanted.

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