Baby Carrots

[az1965]

I just learnt that the baby carrots we all love to eat is washed with chlorine water!!

Even though it is claimed that the concentration is low and the time of contact is short (5 min), nonetheless it is the chlorine that we use to clean our pools and toilets (just more concentrated)...

I have been having some health issues so latey spending time trying to find about what I'm eating and looking to change my dietary habits.

 

[thirty-two]

i love baby carrots

 

[Mulli]

hate them

 

[LVG]

Do you know what the concentration of the Cl in the water is?

Just curious.

 

[az1965]

Do you know what the concentration of the Cl in the water is?

Just curious.

This is what I found...

The carrots must be washed with chlorinated water. This water must have a pH (acidity) between 6.0 and 7.0. The concentration of chlorine in the water should be between 100 and 150 ppm (parts per million). The time of contact between the carrots and the chlorinated water should not exceed 5 minutes. This must be removed from the carrots by rinsing with potable water or using a centrifugal drier.

 

[az1965]

i love baby carrots

I do too... this sucks

 

[az1965]

Here is an article about it... I got this email so started to google about it and found this article. It does confirm chlorine washing even though says it is not harmful (yeah, right)!


Behind the Rumour of Baby Carrots Being Washed in Chlorine
Published Sep 19, 2008 by ■Bart B. Van Bockstaele

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/260034

A friend sent me an e-mail today warning against the consumption of baby carrots:

Baby Carrots and chlorine
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. 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?

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.
​

In contrast to many e-mails circulating around the Internet, this one is fairly well written, and risks therefore to be taken seriously by a lot of people. However, that does not make it necessarily true. So, what do we have to think about this message?

Are baby carrots really made using larger crooked or deformed carrots? Originally, yes. The baby carrot was invented in 1986 by leading Newhall California carrot producer Mike Yurosek who sought to save at least some of the broken or misshapen carrots that he could not use in his fresh carrot packing line.

In order to make baby carrots, he used an industrial green bean cutter to cut them in pieces of about 5 cm long. He then put them in an industrial potato peeler to peel them and round them a bit. And so, the baby carrot was born.

It is unclear why the author of the e-mail mentions this origin of the baby-cut carrot. Does he or she think that an odd-shaped carrot is bad for one's health in some way? Let's be clear: there is no difference whatsoever in nutritional or health qualities between a perfectly shaped carrot and a crooked or misshaped one.

Now, although baby carrots can be bought, most baby carrots sold in grocery store are also not really baby carrots but normal carrots of the "Imperator" type that have been planted close together to make them long and thin. Once harvested, they are washed, sorted, cut, trimmed, grated, polished and shaped into the small uniform size we find in the grocery store packages.

How can you know if you are buying genuine baby carrots? Easy. Baby carrots are indeed just that: carrots that have been harvested while still very young. Baby-cut carrots are easier to find, and they are the larger carrots that have been shaped into baby carrots.

What about the chlorine? This is true as well. The carrots must be washed with chlorinated water. This water must have a pH (acidity) between 6.0 and 7.0. The concentration of chlorine in the water should be between 100 and 150 ppm (parts per million). The time of contact between the carrots and the chlorinated water should not exceed 5 minutes. This must be removed from the carrots by rinsing with potable water or using a centrifugal drier.

Is this dangerous? No. Chlorination is a well-known and well-tested way to disinfect food products. Our tap water is chlorinated as well. I would nevertheless like to issue a warning. When you disinfect something, that means that you kill the bacteria that are present. Chlorine kills bacteria. It can also kill us, or be very bad for us. The bleach you use to clean and disinfect your toilet, contains chlorine. Do not drink it. This will kill you because it is far more concentrated than we can safely ingest. The chlorine in your tap water and in your baby-carrots, presents no danger whatsoever. It is precisely to make the carrots safe that the chlorine is used.

As a side-note, it is interesting to know that the term chlorine is something of a misnomer. Chlorine, in its natural state, is a highly reactive gas that forms compounds with other products. When chlorine is added to other products, it will react virtually immediately to form compounds such as hypochlorous acid (when chlorine is added to water) and sodium hypochlorite (when chlorine is added to a sodium hydroxide solution). These compounds in turn disinfect the water. When we talk about chlorine, and even about free chlorine, these compounds are usually what we are referring to.

What about the white covering? Is that really the chlorine that resurfaces? No. It is simply the carrot drying out. Try it out for yourself. Take a fresh, normal carrot and cut it in half. Wait. The same white covering (which is officially called white blush) will appear on the cut. Baby carrots will show a lot more white blush for a very simple reason: their skin has been removed and therefore, the entire carrot dries out.

Now, what about the "practically plastic" claim? This means nothing. It doesn't even make sense here. My best guess is that the person who wrote the text, either wanted to make it sound even more terrible, or that he or she had heard a rumour about chlorine being an ingredient in plastics (PVC = polyvinyl chloride is a good example). There is absolutely no plastic in baby carrots.

What about the cancer claim? The question is a valid one, especially because we know that there are certain compounds of chlorine that do cause cancer. Does chlorine cause cancer? No. While medical science is not an exact science, and we must always be vigilant, there is at present no evidence whatsoever that chlorine causes cancer or could be a facilitator for cancer. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have not classified chlorine as to its human carcinogenicity. In other words, chlorine is perfectly safe, if it is used appropriately.

The author asks to send her/his "information" to as many people as possible in the hopes of informing them where these carrots come from and how they are processed. Please don't. We all receive more junk mail and spam than we need, and we are already bombarded with more quackery and pseudoscience than we can handle. Do your friends and contacts a favour, and let them out of it!

In short, there is nothing wrong with baby carrots. They are a food that humans have enjoyed for centuries, probably millennia, chock-full of goodness that we need to keep our bodies functioning.

 

[az1965]

Our tap water is chlorinated as well... The chlorine in your tap water and in your baby-carrots, presents no danger whatsoever.

I'm not so sure... my homeopath told me to use a 10 stage filtering system from Whole Foods that cleans the water of chlorine... the water certainly tastes much better than regular filter water. I have put one on my shower as well. He said the chlorine in the tap water IS bad for your body. Said when you take shower with warm water, the pores on your skin open up slightly and the chlroine in the water goes in and may cause other issues.

 

[Linderbee]

I'm not so sure... my homeopath told me to use a 10 stage filtering system from Whole Foods that cleans the water of chlorine... the water certainly tastes much better than regular filter water. I have put one on my shower as well. He said the chlorine in the tap water IS bad for your body. Said when you take shower with warm water, the pores on your skin open up slightly and the chlroine in the water goes in and may cause other issues.

...and I've been told by a dermatologist that pores don't "open & close"; that it's an old wives' tale. Who knows who's right?

Anyway, regardless, the Health Dept makes restaurants & such disinfect dishes & cooking utensils, etc. with a rinse of chlorinated water. Wash, rinse, soak in a bleach/water solution for 5 minutes, dry. Do not rinse again. So, you better stop going out to eat at smaller, mom & pop places that wouldn't have a professional dishwasher (and I mean machine, not person, smart-alecs) if this stuff gives you the heebie-jeebies. Also, places like grocery stores use this to wash their utensils & such. Their dishwashers are only for the big stuff like cookie sheets, mixing bowls, etc. You really won't be able to get away from it.

Baby carrots are also just regular carrots that didn't make the "final cut" to be packaged & are then ground down to "baby carrot" size. (edit: I see your article already mentioned this)

 

[az1965]

BTW, I don't fully trust the health dept... yes, things have been made tough for public in the name of "health" and "purification". Too much chemicals have been fed to us now. Don't believe everything FDA says, there is a lot of corruption there as well.

 

[Mulli]

Whole Foods is way too expensive for me to shop there on a regular basis.

 

[az1965]

I agree... it IS expensive. I'm trying to cut down on lot of luxury items and focus on necessary but high quality things. It is difficult, the kids have been spoiled with too much junk stuff .

 

[Mulli]

I agree... it IS expensive. I'm trying to cut down on lot of luxury items and focus on necessary but high quality things. It is difficult, the kids have been spoiled with too much junk stuff .

Whole Foods has pretty good junk food as well. Hard to find decent produce in Arizona, to me, so you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[az1965]

Yep, even Whole Foods has stuff that may not be good... that is why some research is required to find out which products are really right. It may not be completely avoidable to go without chemical based products but as I mentioned in my other thread, a reduction in dependency may go a long way health wise...

I will add a list of handful of things that I have found out, if anyone cares...

 

[ajcardfan]

What would you have them do to sterilize food instead? I don't think anyone would be really happy about eating baby carrots that gave them a bout of diarrhea for a few days. Or, even worse, e. coli. Personally, I think we should irradiate more food to kill germs. But, people freak out even more over that than chlorine.

 

[Shane]

Whole Foods is way too expensive for me to shop there on a regular basis.

Shut up your a billionaire!

 

[LVG]

I think we should irradiate more food to kill germs.

 

[Linderbee]

There are a bunch of threads over here that need to get moved to the food forum.

 

[Rivercard]

That settles it, I'm switching to baby corn.

 

[az1965]

What would you have them do to sterilize food instead? I don't think anyone would be really happy about eating baby carrots that gave them a bout of diarrhea for a few days.

Wash with water and eat?

What type of germs are going to come thru baby carrots that requires using chlorine, radiation, or something similar to kill them?

I haven't really seen people dropping like flies left and right that eat regular carrots that are _not_ chlorinated...

 

[Mulli]

That settles it, I'm switching to baby corn.

I hate baby corn. What about giving peas a chance?

 

[ajcardfan]

Wash with water and eat?

What type of germs are going to come thru baby carrots that requires using chlorine, radiation, or something similar to kill them?

I haven't really seen people dropping like flies left and right that eat regular carrots that are _not_ chlorinated...

There are plenty. And, washing with water gets off dirt, but not bacteria. Here you go, learn a bit if you want:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=bacteria+vegetables&btnG=Search

Now, vegetables are far, far safer than meat. And, you probably wouldn't make the connection if you did get a bug from your vegetables.

 

[Rivercard]

I hate baby corn. What about giving peas a chance?

Bean there, done that.

 

[az1965]

There are plenty. And, washing with water gets off dirt, but not bacteria. Here you go, learn a bit if you want:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=bacteria+vegetables&btnG=Search

Now, vegetables are far, far safer than meat. And, you probably wouldn't make the connection if you did get a bug from your vegetables.

Oh, I'm learning, I'm learning... from your links and none other but the FDA itself is saying what I said... rinse with water and eat:

Therefore, all produce needs to be thoroughly washed and safely prepared and handled before it is eaten.

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

• Thoroughly rinse raw fruits and vegetables under running water before eating them. Don’t use soap, detergents, or bleach solutions.
• If necessary - and appropriate - use a small vegetable brush to remove surface dirt.
• Try to cut away damaged or bruised areas - bacteria can thrive in these places.

And if you want loads of chemicals and bleach in you... be my guest.

 

[Ryanwb]

Baby carrots are shaved down big carrots that are gross looking and not fit for sale as is. They take off all the bad looking pieces and leave you with the cute little stub.