HISTORY
Baby carrots are a relatively new offering at your local grocery store. Developed by California carrot farmer Mike Yurosek in the 1980's, he took the misshapen and broken carrots he normally would have thrown away and peeled them with a potato peeler into easy to eat 2" shapes. Prior to this ingenious idea, only 30% of the carrot crop actually made it to stores. His carrots were so popular to his local community, he purchased an industrial green bean cutter and began marketing them!
PROCESSING
So what happens to the carrots? Since Mike started trimming and buffing his little carrots in the 1980's, farmers have gone even farther to produce a superior product. Carrots are specially bred to be slimmer, sweeter and coreless. They are also planted much closer together than traditional carrots and picked earlier! After they are picked and cut, they are washed in a chlorine solution to keep them bacteria-free. Do not be alarmed - washing is FDA approved and standard for cut produce including lettuce. It keeps you from getting food poisoning!