Postharvest Fruit/Vegetable & Meat Chlorination

[ElliotB]

A few days ago, my son and I somehow ended up in a conversation about baby carrots in the supermarket not being 'real' baby carrots. I did a bit of research and found he was right, but also found out that carrots are soaked in chlorinated water after they are harvested.

From this article:

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/01/ ... y-carrots/

"Ashley Bade, nutritionist and founder of Honest Mom Nutrition, says the chlorine bath is a standard practice in many pre-cut food items. “The chlorine-water solution is a needed step in the process to limit the risk of food-borne illnesses such as E.coli,” she says."

Actually, this appears to be common practice for some fruits and vegetables in the food industry, as well as meats.

Here is a detailed article on Postharvest Chlorination:

http://ucfoodsafety.ucdavis.edu/files/26414.pdf

Also found this:

"Meat and Poultry Industries. Chlorine solutions are used in many facets of meat and poultry processing, including worker hand, foot, shoe and boot sanitizing; equipment cleaning, sanitizing and whitening; and meat and poultry disinfection. ...
Dairy Industry. ...
Egg Industry. ...
Fish and Seafood Industry. ...
Fresh Produce Industry."


Who would have thought....