raasteita

Raasteita is a Finnish noun, the plural form of raaste. In everyday language it is most often used in cooking and food preparation to indicate grated or shredded ingredients. The base verb raastaa means to grate, shred, or scrape, and raaste refers to the material produced by that action. Therefore raasteita can refer to an unspecified amount of grated material or to several different grated ingredients, such as juustoraaste (grated cheese) or vihannesten raasteet (grated vegetables).

In addition to food, raaste can also denote shavings or scrapings produced during the processing of materials. In that sense raasteita is a generic term for such shavings, regardless of the material.

In written recipes or grocery lists, raasteita appears as a generic indication of grated form, while specific names are used when the ingredient is known (for example juustoraaste or porkkanaraaste). The term is understood across Finland and is common in domestic cooking as well as commercial labeling.