baby carrots

[Sofia T]

You may already know this, but it was new for me when I received this message from a friend yesterday.
The small cocktail (baby) carrots you buy in small plastic bags are made
using the larger crooked or deformed carrots which are put through a
machine which cuts and shapes them into cocktail carrots . most people
probably know this already.
What you may not know and should know is the following: once the carrots
are cut and shaped into cocktail carrots they are dipped in a solution
of water and chlorine in order to preserve them, since they do not have their skin or natural
protective covering, they give them a higher dose of chlorine.
You will notice that once you keep these carrots in your refrigerator
for a few days, a white covering will form on the carrots, this is the
chlorine which resurfaces. At what cost do we put our health at risk to
have esthetically pleasing vegetables which are practically plastic?
Please forgive me for any mistakes, it's my first time posting....

[Joette]

Thank you for posting this! I used to buy baby carrots alot, but now I buy the big carrots with skin still on. My kids love to peel them and they are less expensive. Now I will never buy those little carrots!

Joette

[Pat]

What if they are organic "baby" carrots? They do get slimy quickly, it seems. They wouldn't be dipped, I assume???!!


Pat

[Sofia T]

unfortunately this is all about the organic baby carrtots too. I 'll forward you the email I got. I didn't post all of it, cause it's too long

[Meredeth]

I rarely even peel them any more. I just wash them with a good veggie wash.:)

[Joette]

Here is what Snopes has to say about the carrot issue...

http://www.snopes.com/food/tainted/carrots.asp



On another list I am on someone said (her husband works at a fresh produce processing plant)...

Carrots, and almost ALL other veggies you eat out of a bag, including spinach AND INCLUDING ORGANICS, are put through a chlorine wash--they are NOT soaked in it however. They are run through a flume
of sorts with a chlorine mixture that washes the dirt and bacteria that cause ecoli, etc. off of them

Chlorine does not stay on the veggies, as the molecular structure of the chlorine changes as it attaches to the "dirt", etc., and what remains is said to be safe by the FDA (who personally I do not trust at all)...I believe they say chloramines are what remain, but that doesn't make me feel any better about it

SOME companies do use a citrus acid type wash instead, but I'm not certain if that makes them more safe

Very few, if any, use ozone to clean veggies at this point because the cost of it is still too high even for the large companies like Dole and Fresh Express

Which means, processed fresh veggies are almost always going to have gone through a chlorine wash...

[Pat]

Yuck!

Pat

[Sofia T]

yuck too !!! and that's what we eat almost daily, bagged veggies .... It's insane ... you think you protect your family by giving them fresh food and no processed and here it is again ... chemicals
Sometimes I feel like I spend my time for no reason. To know or not ???

[Dianne]

Whoa,....did not know about the dip? What about the orgainc ones,....are the "dipped" too?

[Joette]

Yes, according to the info I attached...even the organic ones.

[Karen Shattuck]

UGH
I buy the Organic baby carrots all the time!
My husband likes to snack on them so I buy them, so the kids eat them too.
back to the regular ones for us.
I should have known that all though. I mean they certainly don't grow that neat and clean. Of course they are processed.....

[Cara Yara]

We stopped buying the baby carrots a month or so ago when we realized that they don't seem as sweet as the larger carrots. Not to mention the price difference! I can get a 5 lb bag of organic carrots for $5. The baby carrots are never as cheap as $1/lb.

I don't peel carrots, I just wash them, since a lot of the vitamins are on the surface layer. I used to cut them into sticks, but the other day I sliced them at an angle so they were long ovals, and they tasted much better this way! I think it is because you get less skin in each bite, they taste super sweet. That's how I've been serving them to my kids from now on, we call them carrot chips.

Cara

[Melanie Parker]

Thanks for the heads-up about the cocktail carrots. I buy them all the time for my family and have definetly noticed the look you are refering to (after a few days in the fridge). I am going to stop buying them and pass on the info.