Bad, Bad Baby Carrots
Published on July 7, 2009 by chloejo · 32 Comments Pin ItThat baby carrot ain’t so cute. Bigger is definitely better in the land of Carotenoids and Carrot Cake.
Think those baby carrots you toss into your grocery cart are adorable, portable, and free of the hassle of having to peel? Think again bunny babies. Those bite-sized nuggets are hiding an ugly truth behind their seemingly cute facades, kinda like that one night stand from College who wanted to pee on you.
Listen up to why we think the bigger the carrot, the better be the snackin’. Rest assured that once you go big, you’ll never want to go back.
First off, have you noticed the price difference? Why is it that the tiny bag of even tinier carrots is double the price of a sack of massive orange goodness?
This makes even less sense because of the fact that baby carrots don’t grow as baby carrots. Sorry, we hate to break it to you, but there are no teeny tiny baby carrot plants that line row after row of lush, green farms across the nation. Baby carrots are only so small because they are pieces of regular sized carrots that are uniformly cut and processed. This doesn’t sound very natural does it? Especially for those of us who value and love natural, bod-friendly, sustenance from mama earth…and these bouncing babes get even worse.
Ever notice that your baby carrots seem to spend an awful long time hangin’ out in your fridge without even a hint of decay? That’s because these “healthy treats” that you throw in your kids’ lunch boxes every day, and enjoy at your office desk with some lovely hummus are dipped in bleach! Yes, you green gods and goddesses, your precious little carrots are dipped in chlorine to prevent them from turning white during the natural process of “white blushing”. Also, according to Andrea Dickson at WiseBread; baby carrots are made out of a variety of carrot known as the Imperator. They are bred to grow faster and ripen quickly, and because of this, they only have 70% of the beta carotene of a normal carrot.
Dickson also states;
The success of baby carrots speaks to two things about American culture that sort of bug me:
- The desire for food that is uniform in appearance and taste.
- The desire for food to be sterile, already prepared and washed, and packaged for quick, mindless eating.
It’s not that I don’t understand these desires, because it’s easy to confuse uniformity with quality. I can see why someone who has never grown veggies might look askance at a twisted, bumpy carrot with soil still clinging to it. But imperfect food is still perfectly edible, and incredibly delicious. I’m not advocating accepting rotten apples or wilted lettuce, but I think we’ve become lousy consumers if we think that the shape of a carrot will affect its flavor.
So pull a Bugs Bunny and eat your big carrots straight from the earth, stalk, peel and all, just make sure they are organic. There are actually many types of carrots! Read this article and learn all about some delectable and different varieties! And if really need them to be super small cut them yourself, you lazy diva. Once you taste the sweetness of a long, juicy, carrot the way it’s meant to be eaten, you’ll be doin’ a carrot dance in your skivvies. Go big (carrots), or go home.
Tags: Andrea Dickson, baby carrots have bleach, bleached carrots, Carrot Varieties, carrots, organic carrots, Wisebread
Pin ItReaders Comments (32)
Bye bye baby carrots! I’m going big and I’ll slice them up if I really want some bite sized nibbles!
I read about the bleach thing a few weeks ago and was so grossed out!
It’s funny, my little cousins ages 14, 11, and 4 came to our house last week and we served with dip organic carrots cut into sticks. They kept raving about them and ate an entire bunch of them. They loved them more than the onion rings and french fries we made! They made their mom swear she’d buy regular carrots for dipping from now on instead of baby carrots. It was great.
I learned about this recently and could not believe it. I was about to research it. Now I don’t have to. Thanks for advising us on this hidden danger.
I’ve read that baby carrots aren’t the only produce that get washed in chlorinated water. Any thoughts? (the Web site link I attached to my name is the blog post I did recently about this)
this stinks!
egads! i usually buy baby carrots because they’re easier to chop. thanks to this article I’M DONE
It’s funny how you know something isn’t quite right, but you’re too lazy and set in your ways to actually think about it.
That’s the case with the baby carrots. Although I had no clue they had been dipped in bleach. Thanks for this post!
Great article – thanks so much for sharing the scaries about this small part of the food industry. Hopefully more and more consumers will demand healthy practices with their food production.
I knew that baby carrots were just cut from a larger carrot, but I had no idea about the bleach! Please tell me that organic baby carrots aren’t produced in the same manner!
Thanks so much for the info!
so not awesome. great post, thanks!
Kim: Organic growers use Citrox a supposedly safe natural alternative. Nothing I would mess with. Eat ’em big and cut ’em small if need be.
I had NO idea!!!!!!!! :(((
Mike Yurosek a farmer in the SCV “invented” the baby carrot as a way to keep cost down on waste. Farming of any kind in CA is expensive. I’m from a farming family…I know. Sad how and industry ran with an “idea” and twisted it into something “fake”….
AAAAAAACCCCCCCCCK!!!!!!! That’s vile. I will never look at a baby carrot again. Thanks for the info!
Carrots are very safe to eat they are NOT soaked in bleach water. That bleach story is toally false.
Carrots are very safe to eat they are NOT soaked in bleach water. That bleach story is totally false.
Thanks for sharing, great info as always! Thanks!
What a shame. We prefer the original size any ways. My son loves it when we buy the ones with the tops still on them. The more natural the better. It’s like going to buy roma tomatoes and they are all glossy and waxy, gross!
The big orange carrots we C 2day Rnt xactly natural either. According 2 nternet history, they were created n Holland n the 16th century as a tribute 2 King William of Orange. Sum say that carrots were originally purple. Others say that the carrot is a cross btwn a yarrow root & wild yam. Evry historian admits that the original carrots weren’t what people eat 2day.
I’m not too worried. Chlorine (aka bleach) in your tap water, too. Tap water (unless it comes from a well) has 0.5 mg/litre of chlorine. It’s the suggested amount to use as a disinfectant by the World Health Organization. The Safe Drinking Water Acts also suggests chlorine to be used with chlorine dioxide as a water disinfectant. Anyone know the ratio of chlorine to water being used to process the carrots and if it’s actually a harmful amount, or is it about the same as tap water?
I started cutting and eating regular organic carrots in the past few months without knowing about the bleach… And now, I will never go back!
What a disappointment! but…okay….I’m DONE! I buy the real deal from here on in! Thanks!!!!! xojo
I don’t buy baby carrots anymore but it’s because of taste…they are always so slimy. Also, was this post written in 5 minutes? Seems rushed.
I stopped buying baby carrots because of the price and then I just ended up being like, “Those weird little things? Seriously, I think there might be something wrong with them!”
Great post, thanks for letting us know.
Someone once told me they were “freaked out” by baby carrots… now I understand why ! Yikes!! Will fwd this article to many friends !!
[…] BAD, BAD BABY CARROTS […]
[…] That’s why they’re called “essential.” Try it sometime! (Although not with baby carrots, […]
[…] in your pool-but it is chlorine. Many organic growers use a citrus based solution called Citrox-a supposedly safe, natural alternative, to rinse fruits and veggies instead of […]
Snopes to the rescue, again (as always!!) : http://www.snopes.com/food/tainted/carrots.asp
GuruKarm: Snopes doesn’t rescue anything, only proves that carrots are soaked in chlorine, which is unnec and gross.. certainly not optimum health.
[…] For more info click here: Bad Bad Baby Carrot […]