Is a Baby Peeled Carrot a Baby Peeled Carrot?

New Zealand Fresh Cuts is New Zealand’s only grower and producer of Baby Peeled Carrots. These are sold nationwide and exported under the Farmer Bills brand.

Whilst the Internet can be a great resource it can also be a source of inaccurate, distorted and untrue information and therefore we would like to take the opportunity to respond to a recent inaccurate letter concerning Baby Peeled Carrots found circulating on the Internet and which has now also been published in a local school newsletter.

New Zealand Fresh Cut’s, a leader in the fresh cuts industry for over 27 years,passion is to provide healthy, sustainable products that raise the awareness of health and wellbeing. It is extremely difficult to find quick and easy snacks for children that are healthy and that do not provide a “sugary or salty quick fix”.

Farmer Bill’s Baby Peeled Carrots are our solution to the children's health food snack requirements. Our carrots are specifically grown, year round, for this purpose, on our own farms, right here in New Zealand. The variety we grow is chosen for flavour and size and is planted at high density as to restrict growth size, and to ensure they make a great baby carrot.

Our cutting and peeling equipment automatically grades out any large size carrots as peeling is targeted at a maximum of 2mm off the diameter of the carrot. We offer no compromise here - large carrots, if peeled down to a snack size, would result in just the core being left for consumption, which would not be sweet and tender.

As with all value-added food, our baby peeled carrots are sanitised to protect consumers and prevent food poisoning from natural soil borne pathogens. Any residual left from the sanitisation process is less than what is found in normal tap water. Our processing plant is regularly independently audited to ensure we meet the highest levels of food safety, hygiene and quality assurance.

Baby Peeled carrots are from time to time seen with what is referred to as “white blush”. This is simply a natural occurrence caused by the drying off of the peeled carrot surface and can be likened to the browning that occurs on a cut apple. This whitish appearance is more prevalent in summer grown carrots where the moisture content is lower. The normal bright orange appearance of a peeled carrot can be quickly restored after soaking in water. Eating the carrot whilst white blush is in evidence will not harm the consumer in anyway what so ever.

New Zealand Fresh Cuts open door policy ensures visitors are always welcome to our production facilities to view our processes.

So passionate are we at New Zealand Fresh Cuts about encouraging healthy eating for children, that we have recently instigated the Farmer Bills Schools Programme – where schools can earn credits towards educational aids through redemption of bar codes from our Farmer Bills Baby Peeled Carrots products. You can learn more about this programme by perusing our website www.farmerbills.co.nz.