Baby Carrots Unpuzzled

I always wondered how baby carrots were made. Are they grown like that, or they purposely cut into that shape? So I decided to research more about them. First, baby carrots were invented in the 1980’s by a farmer named Mike Yurosek, who wanted to give a solution to all the carrots being wasted after harvesting. Because not all carrots were proper to sale due to some imperfections, they were being discarded. So, Yurosek, with the help of an industrial cutter and peeler, were able to create the baby carrots like we know today in order to diminish waste.

              

Today, baby carrots are very, very popular that it led to an increase of 30% of carrots consumption in the United States. Because of its popularity, farmers today, grow a specific kind of carrot to purposely become a baby carrot. This carrot is smaller, tender and sometime sweeter than regular sized ones. After harvested manufactures cut about 2 inches of the top of the carrots and peel them to look like what we know as baby carrots. The peeled skin and the top parts of the carrots turn into cattle feed, shredded carrots or carrot juice so that minimal waste is generated. Carrots are then soaked in a chlorine solution for sanitary reasons to prevent the growth of unwanted microorganisms such as E.coli and Salmonella.  Afterwards, the carrots are cleaned in a fresh water bath to reduce the chlorine content and then packed to distribution. The chlorine solution used to clean the carrots is claimed to be less the amount approved by the FDA and similar to the amount found in regular tap water (4.4 parts per million). 

So, if you use filtered water at home, I recommend washing them before eating just to get rid of any remaining chlorine residue. However, if you don’t have a filter at home, there is not a lot you can do to reduce the chlorine content in baby carrots. But don’t worry, having carrots with little chloride residues is better than not having carrots at all. We in New York, drink far more chlorine from tap water than from carrots. So if baby carrots is your snack choice, go for it.

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/babycarrot.html