Baby Carrots are so cute and easy to eat at picnics and cocktail parties but little did we know that they are wasteful for the environment and not as healthy as the large variety.

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

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 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.

My mother in-law asked me,

“I buy the organic ones....are they better you suppose???”

As an organic retailer (ironically my store is called The Big Carrot), I have had to deal with this question a lot in the last few month's.

I have finally got a hold of the folks in charge of processing "cal-organic" carrots and asked the question, “Does the organic baby carrots get a chlorine bath the way conventional ones do?”

I was shocked by their answer:

The chlorine bath is the only thing that keeps these carrots from going moldy in days after processing.

I must also let you know that the skin is removed by high-pressure washing. 10 times the water is wasted in the production of these carrots than in traditional methods i.e. a quick wash to send the big carrots off to market.

If you plan on eating any baby carrots, please wash them well in warm water to reduce the chlorine and eat them quickly as they do harbour mold due to lack of skin and air tight plastic packaging.

In the words of my Mother in-law “Never did like that white stuff, I think I'll just keep on passing by those wee carrots!”

The long and the short of it is- there really are no short cuts. Convenience always reduces quality. Try to keep food as natural and unprocessed as possible!