As a longtime carrot connoisseur, I love every type out there—except for one: packaged baby carrots. That’s right, those unnaturally perfect miniature carrot-like specimens sold everywhere from upscale grocery stores to gas stations to corporate office vending machines. They’re actually problematic in several ways.
Ever since baby carrots were “invented” in the 1980s, marketers have convinced us that they’re the ultimate healthy snack, a convenient way to enjoy veggies on the go. Sure, they may be snackable and convenient, but they’re definitely not what you think they are. Here’s why you should think twice before snagging a bag:
1.They’re not actually “baby.” The package might claim otherwise, but most carrots sold as “baby carrots” are just regular carrots that have been cut into two-inch pieces, shaved, and polished down to that snackable size.
2.They don’t taste like real carrots. The flavor of these so-called baby carrots can best be described as factory-fresh, which is very different from the actual taste of a carrot. Don’t believe me? Get a bag of regular carrots and do a side-by-side taste test.
3.The baby-carrot industry promotes unrealistic beauty standards. Not all carrots can be cut and trimmed to become the perfectly straight, perfectly thin baby carrots that people will buy. When they arrive at the processing plant, the carrots are sorted, and any that are too fat or not straight enough are discarded to become juice or animal fodder. So, when you buy a bag of these baby carrots, you’re buying into an industry obsessed with unrealistic, unnatural perfection.
4.They waste energy. After sorting, the carrots are cut down by machines into perfect two-inch pieces and then shaved twice to make them perfectly round. Consider all the energy these machines consume, all for the purpose of beautifying something that was fine to begin with and that we’ll consume immediately.
5.They’re rinsed with chlorine.
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