Oh, no! Are baby carrots treated with chlorine? Yes, but it's not a big deal. [CR Health]
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I prefer my carrots to be irradiated.
@dohtem: Because some people freak out about treating food with chemicals - eve though the treatments are meant to make the food cleaner and safer.
Adding bleach to water is also considered a safe way to clean it in an emergency - something like 1/8th of a teaspoon per 5 gallons
Isn't it also in many municipal water supplies? So if you buy organic carrots, washing them might add chlorine to them!
@BuildABearGroupMember_GitEmSteveDave: Chlorine actually evaporates off pretty quickly from tap water. A lot of gardening books recommend you let tap/hose water stand in a bucket or watering can for 5 minutes and then water delicate plants that are particularly sensitive to chemicals, since chlorine and a couple other things evaporate off very fast.
We occasionally get overchlorinated water after a flood overtops the sewage treatment plants (our water's drawn from the river) and letting your glass of water stand literally 60 seconds or so makes most of the chlorine odor dissipate.
Well, I've eaten tons of these and I'm still here, so I guess I'm not going to worry about it.
They're great dipped in peanut butter. :)
@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle): I had a aquarium filter which recommended you clean it with a little bleach, then let air dry, as it would clean/kill the bacteria, then dissipate. I eat a lot of baby carrots, and can honestly not ever remember smelling chlorine, and I have well water, so even a small amount(tap water at work) is noticeable by my nose.
@HogwartsAlum: I've smoked about 8,000 cigs and I'm still alive. That doesn't exactly mean they're safe.
I dunno, I feel like if it's something that's totally harmless and can literally do no harm, then the companies that do this wouldn't try to hide it. Tobacco companies fought like the dickens to not have to put on warning labels, and they knew all along. If there was nothing to be worried about, they wouldn't be worried about disclosing. It's the same with the milk companies fighting the bovine growth hormone labeling.
as a swimmer growing up, i swallowed plenty of chlorinated water accidentally without any harm.
i'd rather have my veggies lightly chlorinated than have an incident like my friend had in mexico city eating salad:
[www.theairibreathemovie.com]
if they had just washed that lettuce with a little chlorine.... well, it might have helped
... unless you're allergic to chlorine, like me...
@youbastid: On the other hand, putting something on a label does not necessarily assure your customers/consumers that it is safe. See, e.g., high fructose corn syrup.
@Rich Depping: I'm not questioning your allergy, but.....well ok I am. Isn't chlorine one of the essential elements in our bodies? Vague memories of undergraduate physiology classes come to mind. Something something ion-gated channels?
If the levels are safe, I'm not going to worry about it. If I peel the carrots and wash them in tap water, they're likely to get chlorine on them that way.
It doesn't sound like something I need to be too concerned about, unlike tobacco, which has known health risks and nasty side effects.
@rockasocky: Chlorine intolerance is pretty common, but an outright allergy is very rare and although IANAD it generally affects the skin, not internal organs.
My uncle invented baby carrots. True story. Well, he invented the method of cutting down large carrots into the familiar 'baby' shape. Now he works for Grimmway Farms, the largest producer of baby carrots in the world. Yes, they are bathed in a chlorinated water solution. Does the FDA think it's a big deal? Nope, and neither should we.
@seandavid010: ohmigosh, i have to know, when they shave or grind down the carrots, however it's done to round off the cut pieces, what happens to the carrot detritus? Does it get used for something?
@ribex: Actually, yes. The carrots are processed in a water bath, and so all the little shavings are carried across the plant, strained, and are eventually pressed to extract the juice. The juice is concentrated, sealed in giant plastic bags, and sold off to other companies. (Curiously, a lot of it is exported to Japan, and Campbell's Soup buys a bunch of it for V8 juice.) The now pulverized carrot pulp is then dried and used for animal feed, IIRC.
In the early days they trimmed the carrots and rounded the edges by running them through big rotating drums that were originally designed to trim and size green beans. Nowadays, however, Grimmway uses some proprietary method that I can never really get my uncle to talk about. They sure are tasty, though.
Just because it is in the body naturally doesn't mean you can't be allergic to it.
Baby carrots are trying to make me gay.
Wow. This is Consumerist, and no one has yet pointed out that baby carrots cost 2-3x as much as regular carrots. Five minutes with a veggie peeler, paring knife, and a bag of carrots, and...voila: You have a bag of homemade baby carrots. Chlorine free.
@razremytuxbuddy: time = money.
Some people don't have time, but have money. There for, if buying precut carrots saves somebody 15-20 mins then they have also saved money.
@Skankingmike: I knew someone would post the time is money argument, but I disagree.
1. It takes 5 mins, not 15-20.
2. Chances are, that time would not be spent earning income--especially if you are a salaried employee (I'm not). It can also be delegated to a child of appropriate age.
3. It's just a matter of paying double or triple for something the buyer doesn't want to spend 5 minutes doing for him/herself.
@razremytuxbuddy: baby carrots 2-5 dollars.
Bunch of carrots 3.99.... 90% of the time the carrots in a bunch look horrid.
and 5 mins is impossible.
@Skankingmike: LOL! I just did it this morning--which is why this thread got my attention. It actually took 7 mins because I was making a bowl of oatmeal at the same time. In 7 mins, I had a pound of baby carrots bagged, the utensils in the DW, the cutting board cleaned, dried and put away, and my oatmeal was out of the microwave and cool enough to eat. Just sayin....
My 1 lb bag of carrots was $.89
All carrots look bad until they have been peeled and cut up. It's how they come out of the ground. I suspect that baby carrots look particularly horrid in their raw form, and that's why they are picked out to send to the baby carrot mill.
@razremytuxbuddy: I can't be bothered I'll spend the extra money for my chlorine
Not everybody is fast at cutting and peeling carrots.
.89? can I live by you?
@Skankingmike: Sure you can move here to Kansas. Carrot prices are just one of the many joys of living here. ;)
@razremytuxbuddy: hah that's great what are the other joys?
In NJ has every type of nationality food restaurant. But we have to wait for our produce to be cheap in the summer when it was grown locally by our farmers
YES we have farmers.
@Skankingmike: Ah, but my 3 year old son has no interest in regular carrots. Now if I give him a plate of baby carrots and peanut butter, and he'll leave no trace of food in a matter of minutes.
Meg, if it is completely harmless, why the scary headline?