Baby Carrots...

[Beth Maxim]

Hi all,

 

Yet another reason for us to grow our own vegetables!

 

While I didn’t get any good info from the holistic moms on specific products or by laws, they did send the following…

 

The following is information from a farmer who grows and packages carrots
for IGA, METRO, LOBLAWS, etc. 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 (this is the same chlorine used in
your pool) since they do not have their skin or natural protective covering,
they give them a higher dose of chlorine.

We do hope that this information can be passed on to as many people as
possible in the hopes of informing them where these carrots come from and
how they are processed. Chlorine is a very well known carcinogen.

 

From a second member…

Unfortunately, I can verify the truthfulness (most of it
anyway) of your post. My husband runs a company out of Salinas,
California (worldwide company) that processes fresh cut fruits and
veggies and has worked for them for almost 15 years...so here's the scoop:

 

• yes, all the carrots, crooked and otherwise, are spun through a
  machine that strips the outside creating "baby" carrots

 

• yes, 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

 

• the whiteness on the carrots is NOT chlorine remnants, it is the
  carrot drying out...even whole carrots get this whiteness when drying,
  though cut carrots are more obvious since their skin is removed (the
  moisture barrier)

 

• 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...

 

• He says the industry really struggles with the USDA, the recent
  spinach and tomato outbreaks and public outcry...the government forces
  them to do something to avoid future bacterial contaminations (another
  interesting story in and of itself), and financially, chlorine is the
  best option because we won't buy a $5 bag of carrots just because it
  wasn't washed in chlorine (it's too expensive for those of us who know
  better, and those who don't know better want their carrots washed in
  chlorine so they don't get a life threatening bacteria).

 

See you tomorrow,

Beth