Let’s talk about baby carrots. First of all, don’t you think baby carrots are an odd produce item? What other veggie comes so polished, so smooth, so rounded, and just…so uniform? How in the heck do they GET that way?

Turns out (according to the research of Darcey Lenz, food writer, senior editor, and recipe developer for www.allrecipes.com), baby carrots, also labeled as “baby-cut” carrots, are not plucked from the ground as the pristine batons you find packaged in the supermarket’s produce section. They are made from fully-grown carrots that have been snapped into pieces during the harvesting process. They often come from carrots that are too irregular in shape or size to sell as-is.

To avoid waste, these “ugly” adult carrots are peeled, trimmed, and shaped into roughly two-inch-long minis by machine. The baby carrots are then washed with a chlorine solution (as many fresh-cut vegetables are) and thoroughly rinsed before packaging.

And have you ever wondered why your baby carrots come out of their bag so wet? Darcy, has that answer, too: She says that the liquid is there for a reason and no cause for concern. They’re deliberately bagged with added water. Unlike the whole carrots they’re carved from, baby carrots do not have a natural outer peel. Although this is one of the features that makes baby carrots incredibly convenient, a carrot’s natural peel helps the vegetable retain moisture so that it stays crisp, rather than becoming prematurely limp and rubbery.

So in order to combat dehydration, food manufacturers add filtered tap water to the bag of freshly cleaned baby carrots before sealing. This added water helps to ward off the unsightly (but totally safe) white “blush” that baby carrots are prone to develop as they begin drying out.

So, while there’s nothing inherently off or icky about the moisture in your bag of baby carrots, sitting in a pool of the same carrot water for an extended amount of time can expedite the carrots’ developing a slimy exterior. Since sliminess is a strong indicator they’ve gone bad, it’s best to just toss or compost them.

But the smarter way is to regularly monitor them, keeping them in fresh water until the last carrot is consumed, thus avoiding a slimy situation altogether, right?

Now, before I close, let’s address a tiny detail mentioned above: “…baby carrots are then washed with a chlorine solution (as many fresh-cut vegetables are) and thoroughly rinsed before packaging.” I don’t like the idea of my food being “washed” in a chlorine or any other solution, do you?

But here’s the latest American standard: according to several reports from university extension agencies, “Mild chlorine wash is used to kill harmful bacteria like E. coli and prevent foodborne illnesses. The carrots are immediately rinsed with clean water, so no significant amount of chlorine remains on them.”

Did you read that? “Mild chlorine…” and “…no significant amount…remains…” Well, if it’s all so safe, why is the worker in the above photo wearing a mask? I dunno, I’ll probably continue to err on the side of caution and just keeping buying the big guys and cutting them into those familiar and safe carrot sticks. I’m wondering, what’s your take on this baby carrot stuff?