a wee bit ago this conversation between mas, myself and a third was had :
cevd : *pulling a bag of baby carrots out of thirds fridge* you know baby carrots are just regular carrots whittled down to baby size right?
third : yes
mas : who doesn't know that?
cevd : well if you know it WHY do you still buy them?
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i take issue with the amount of waste created with this concept and really have no idea why anyone would buy baby carrots after knowing they were in fact just regular carrots. so can you tell me, 1. were you aware that baby carrots were in fact regular carrots made small and 2. if you were in fact aware did it stop you from buying the minis?
(you can be honest, i won't judge, i promise)
{picture found here}
Yep, I knew about the baby carrot scam. I think there is a carrot divide. My family only eats whole carrots. D's family only eats baby carrots and calls normal sized carrots "horse carrots." It's an irreconcilable difference.
ReplyDeleteI've actually never considered the origin of baby carrots...perhaps I should be more conscious of these things! Alas, we do buy only baby carrots - I feel like I prefer the taste, they seem sweeter to me, though I guess it may be all in my head! With a toddler, they make for such a quick, easy snack (that she will actually eat!) so I guess I've been sucked into the scam!
ReplyDeleteI don't think we have 'baby' carrots in England... we have Chantenay carrots which actually are miniature and are sold with their tops and skin on. We have purple carrots, white carrots, yellow carrots, deep orange carrots. But no whittled down baby carrots (a strange concept if ever there was one!).
ReplyDeleteWhen I've bought them in the US I just always assumed they were Chantenay. Wont make that mistake again!
I doubt manufacturers let the rest of the carrot go to waste when their mission is to make a profit. Whether blended to a puree and added to X, thrown into ready-to-eat salad mixes, or through animal fodder, corporations would never think of throwing carrot scraps out if there was still money to be extracted. The baby carrot is really not that evil.
ReplyDeleteI DO buy baby carrots, mostly for convenience (that much faster to pop them into a lunchbag), but I figured they used the extra shreds for something else, maybe? But I can also see your point. On principle, why buy them?
ReplyDeletecheck it out:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.snopes.com/food/tainted/carrots.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_carrot
apparently they're made from carrots that would have otherwise been thrown away... so not really wasteful.
but it is a lot of unnecessary processing... and i think big carrots taste better anyways, so no, we don't buy the "baby" ones.
processing and packaging=waste
ReplyDeletemost people, sadly, are not very waste conscience i find. :(
that said, i *have* bought them [as snack ready food] but i usually don't.
1. Yes
ReplyDelete2. Yes
I buy them and lots of them, in fact. :) My 5 year old will only eat the little evil waste making buggers. I prefer the regular ones, but what are you going to do? I rather her eat the evil ones, then no carrots at all.
ReplyDeleteYes. And sorta yes. I admit to a phase of only baby carrots because of their convenience (ease of snackability) but started buying big carrots again because I actually starting cooking more. It's a pain in the arse to dice up baby carrots. And, I presume the sweetness is because the inner part of the carrot is much sweeter than the outside (sp?) hence the whittling down.
ReplyDeleteAs for the evil part - making us pay more because of convenience which is normal for big corporation land, right? I will never, ever buy pre-sliced apples though; weird.