B a b y C a r r o t s ?

Why are baby carrots shaped the way they are?

When you found out baby carrots were actually just chopped up adult carrots, you may have wondered why their edges are round. You would be in good company. Here is a picture of real "baby" carrots:

This may be a shocking image to some, as it was to me. Real baby carrots turn out be stumpy and, compared to the baby carrots we are used to, maybe less appetizing. At least, this is what Mike Yurosek thought. In the 1980s, this North Carolinian farmer put his knobby carrots into a special cutter thing and made the shape of the babies we know today. This was great because more people wanted to eat carrots, and now this type of cut carrot is responsibile for 50% of carrot sales in the United States.

For the past several decades, people have gotten this process more up to snuff. They have devised a special strain of biologically modified carrots that are smaller than the carrots we chop up in soups.

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However, many baby carrots are still cut from adult roots. (When I found this out I wondered about where they put the excess carrot after the carving process. Apparently, it is used for animal fodder.) Some people think that baby carrots made by Manufacturers like Baby Cut Carrots are worse for you than real baby carrots. This may be because mainstream cut carrots have become commercially produced en masse and possibly the quality is degraded. There are other companies that sell real baby carrots that are shaped more like balls.

Whether we believe that fake baby carrots are worse for you or not, they are a huge misnomer at best, false advertizing at worst. I have never tried a real baby carrot, personally. But I would like to, and you might too.