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Those Pretty Baby Carrots

Our oranges may not be bright orange, and our carrots may not have perfect shape, but every Jamaican knows how to enjoy imperfect looking but great tasting and nutritious fruit and vegetable.

You see, until you leave the shores of Jamaica, or you spend a lot of time on the internet, you don't realize the amount of chemical alteration that is done to fruit and vegetable in the name of making them aesthetically pleasing. But what is the down side of all this ' pretty food'?

The following is information from a farmer who grows and packages carrots.

The small cocktail (baby) carrots you buy in small plastic bags are made using the larger crooked or deformed carrots which are put through a machine which cuts and shapesthem into cocktail carrots.

Most people probably know this already. What you may not know and should knowis the following: once the carrots are cut and shaped into cocktail carrots they are dipped in a solution of water and chlorine in order to preserve them. This is the same chlorine used in your pool.

Since they do not have their skin or natural protective covering, they give them a higher dose of chlorine. You will notice that once you keep these carrots in your refrigeratorfor a few days, a white covering will form on the carrots. This is the chlorine which resurfaces. Chlorine is a very well known carcinogen.

At what cost do we put our health at risk to have aesthetically pleasing vegetables. As Jamaicans, we will gwaan hug up wi lumpy carrots ... some pretty and some not so pretty.

Source : Contributed

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