Do Carrots Go Bad?

Once upon a time and nowadays, carrots have been an essential ingredient in human life. You use carrots for cooking, making juice, sauce, or cake, but I think you can not correctly answer the question, “Do carrots go bad?”.

Do not worry! I am here, and I will provide all the fantastic information about this topic for you. After reading this article thoroughly, you not only answer this question exactly but also know more other knowledge about how to store it effectively as well as other helpful tips.

Therefore, do not miss any content of this article. Keep reading. Every fantastic piece of information is waiting for you to get. Let’s make your life better together!

Do Carrots Go Bad Or Not?

Absolutely yes, carrots can go wrong. You should remember that nothing is forever; you just keep it longer if you store it correctly.

Carrots are a kind of root vegetable. Like other vegetables, carrots can be attacked by viruses, bacteria, and molds, leading to the decreased quality of carrots and their shelf life.

So, What Are The Causes That Make Your Carrots Go Bad?

The top cause that directly affects your carrots’ quality is how you store them. It is a bad idea to buy carrots from the supermarket or collect them from your farm, but you ignore them and put them everywhere in your house. Your carrots will be rotten faster.

You had better remember to store carrots like the way that you take care of your family. If you spend more time caring for your children or wife, your family will be happier. Preserving carrots is familiar; carrots will be fresher and keep longer when you store them carefully.

Another factor is the effect of environmental conditions such as temperature, sunlight, moisture, humidity. All of them can affect your carrots because they can cause some expression such as wither, rot.

The attack of viruses, bacteria, and mold is the main cause that makes carrots go bad faster.

I believe that after reading this section, you can answer the question correctly. But if you want to know all the helpful information about carrots, do not move, stay here and keep reading the next section.

Let’s find out some fantastic tips to preserve carrots effectively.

How To Preserve Carrots Effectively?

There are various simple ways to store carrots. In this article, I will show you some practical tips to preserve them. No more worrying that you’ll run out of carrots when you’re strucks with fantastic ideas for preparing a healthy salad meal.

1. Store In The Refrigerator

A refrigerator is a perfect place to store carrots. It can keep carrots away from sunlight and high temperature. You can store it in plastic bags or containers as well as wrapping them in a paper towel.

Using Containers Or Plastic Bag

When storing carrots in plastic bags or containers will help carrots retain moisture as well as prevent the penetration of air to prevent carrots from spoiling.

How-to:

• Step 1: After buying or harvesting carrots, you should wipe them and cut off the green parts.
• Step 2: Put the carrots in a container or plastic bag.
• Step 3: Put the carrots’ plastic bag in the refrigerator and store it.

Preserving In Water

In addition, you slice carrots for cooking, but after that, you change your mind and do not want to eat carrots anymore. What will you do to store these sliced carrots?. I highly recommend that you keep them in a water bowl and put them in the refrigerator.

How-to:

• Step 1: Remove the green parts of carrots.
• Step 2: Put the carrots in a bowl of water or you can slice them and put them in a bowl of water. Cover the bowl of water with cling film or plastic wrap.
• Step 3: Put the bowl in the refrigerator and remember to change the water periodically.

2. Bury Carrots

If you want to buy carrots and use them for 3 to 6 months, you can bury carrots in a container of sand. This way will prevent the bacteria’s development. Remember not to wash carrots with water because carrots will rot faster.

This is my favorite way of preserving carrots, as this allows me to always have fresh carrots at my disposal. Thanks to this, I can easily prepare carrot-based dishes to serve with Beef Wellington, one of the delicacies I can’t live without.

How-to:

• Step 1: Put sand in a wooden crate ( about 2 inches).
• Step 2: Remove the green parts of carrots
• Step 3: Arrange carrots in a row, remember to arrange them in a moderate distance, not too crowded.
• Step 4: Cover with a layer of sand (about 1 inch).
• Step 5: Store the box in a cool and dark location.

3. Cut Green Parts

Another tip to keep carrots longer is to cut green parts. When you buy carrots from the supermarket, you better cut green leaves to help carrots stay moist.

On the other hand, if you do not cut the green parts, the carrots will not need to concentrate water and nutrients to feed those green parts. It will make the carrots dry faster and more easily damaged.

How-to:

• Step 1: Wipe carrots to remove dirt or contaminants.
• Step 2: Cut off the green parts. You can use carrots’ green part to make smoothies, or sauce if you want.
• Step 3: Put carrots in a plastic bag or container.
• Step 4: Place carrots in the refrigerator or dark and cool place.

4. Pantry

You probably can preserve carrots in the pantry. However, you should only apply this method for raw whole carrots. Please stay away from direct sunlight and store them in a clean, cool place.

How-to:

• Step 1: Wipe carrots to remove soil, dirt, and contaminants.
• Step 2: Trim off the green parts of carrots.
• Step 3: Put carrots in a plastic bag and place them in the coolest location.

5. Canning

A popular method that is used to store vegetables is canning. Canning carrots will help you preserve carrots for longer as well as convenient to use them because you do not need to spend too much time washing or preparing them before cooking.

How-to:

• Step 1: Peel carrots’ skin, wash and cut off the green parts.
• Step 2: You should slice them to save up the space in a jar.
• Step 3: Pour boiling water as long as all slices of carrots are sunk into the water.
• Step 4: The last step is to place them in a pressure canner, and it will do the rest of the work for about 25 minutes.

6. Dehydration

If you want to preserve carrots for a year, I highly recommend that you apply a dehydration method. This is a fairly infrequently used method, but I will still provide you with a variety of methods to preserve carrots for you.

How-to:

• Step 1: The first step you need to do is to cut carrots into slices that will help you shorten dehydrating time.
• Step 2: You need a dehydrator and set it at 125 degrees F.
• Step 3: Arrange your cut carrots in the machine, and wait a few hours for the carrots to dry completely.
• Step 4:  When carrots are done, collect them, and put them in a jar.
• Step 5: Bring the jar of carrots to store in a pantry.

Let’s learn some fantastic tips to store carrots effectively. Watch this video:

Can You Freeze Carrots?

If you want to preserve carrots for a long time, you had better store them in the freezer. But, first of all, you hadn’t better freeze raw carrots. Because freezing raw carrots can decrease the nutritional content, color, and texture of carrots.

To store carrots better in the freezer, I highly recommend that you should blanch them before freezing.

Follow these instructions step by step to get a good result:

• Step 1: To store carrots in the freezer, you need to clean them and peel carrots’ skin.
• Step 2: Cut the carrots into small pieces.
• Step 3: Place carrots in a pot of boiling water for 2 minutes. Be careful not to leave it on for too long. This process is intended to destroy harmful bacteria or enzymes present in carrots.
• Step 4: Take the carrots out and put them in a bowl of ice to cool them down quickly.
• Step 5: Take them out to drain, put them in decent freezer-safe containers and store them in the freezer.

Another way that you can apply to freeze carrots is to puree them and freeze them in the freezer. This is a convenient way because you can add pureed carrots to soups, smoothies, or carrots cakes.

How Long Do Carrots Last?

In case you need to learn the average shelf-life of carrots, this section is for you. The shelf life of carrots depends on where you store carrots, such as in the fridge, freezer, and in the kitchen (outside), as well as the type of carrots.

If you have raw carrots in your house. The shelf life is about 3 to 5 days if you store them in the pantry, about 4 to 5 weeks in the refrigerator, and 6 to 9 months when stored in the freezer.

Baby carrots are a popular type of carrots. Baby carrots can last for 3 to 5 days when stored in the pantry. 3 to 4 weeks are baby carrots’ shelf life when stored in the fridge, and they can keep fresh for 6 to 9 months if they are frozen.

For carrots that are sliced and put in a bowl of water, I highly recommend that you had better store them in the fridge because they can be fresh for 6 to 8 weeks. And they will be spoiled faster if you put them outside in the kitchen.

When stored in the refrigerator, the shelf life of cooked carrots is about 7 days and 6 to 9 months in the freezer. In addition, you hadn’t better store cooked carrots outside.

The below table will give you a general view of the shelf life of carrots when stored in the fridge, freezer, and in the kitchen (outside).

Let’s jump to the next part to gain information about signals that you can see when carrots have gone wrong.

What Are Expressions That You Can See If Carrots Have Gone Bad?

No matter how many types of carrots are divided, they all share the same spoiling symptoms. One day, if you see these signals that happen with your carrots, you had better discard them because they have gone bad.

1. The Appearance Of Strange Smell

Like other vegetables, when you notice any strange odor from your carrots, unfortunately, this indicates that your carrots have gone wrong. It is a signal that your carrots have been rotting due to the attack of viruses and bacteria.

Eating spoiled carrots will cause harmful effects to your health, so you had better discard them when you realize any strange smell.

2. Green Leaves Become Dry

The dried green leaves issue happens when you do not cut the green leaves of carrots after buying or harvesting. You store carrots in the pantry, and after a few days, you can see the appearance of dried green leaves.

Environmental factors such as sunlight, temperature, and air will cause the moisture and water in the carrots to dry out, which means that the carrots will become dry.

3. White Spots Appearance

White spots appearance shows that your carrots are losing moisture because of improper storage. However, when you notice your carrots’ issue, you can eat them immediately and do not need to discard them. Remember to eat them as soon as possible.

4. Changing Physical Features

When you store carrots outside, they will be dried due to sunlight and temperature. It causes the carrots to soften and no longer retain their firmness. If this lousy situation happens to you, you should throw out your carrots and buy other ones.

5. Mold Spots

Mold is the main reason that causes the decrease of vegetables’ quality. Why do I say that?. Vegetables are susceptible, mold appears everywhere surrounding you. Mold spots usually appear on the surface of carrots when carrots become rot.

Do not try to eat carrots with mold spots because that can cause serious health problems for you and your family.

What Happens If You Eat Bad Carrots?

Carrots are not like other canned or packaged foods, they do not have a specific shelf life, but they are only spoiled slowly when attacked by viruses, bacteria, and molds.

Like other foods, when you eat rotten, spoiled carrots, it will cause gastrointestinal diseases such as diarrhea, abdominal pain, and poisoning.

Moreover, consuming spoiled carrots causes harmful effects on your health, but eating too many carrots in a day is also not good for your health. Because this quickly leads to diseases such as jaundice and constipation.

So, remember to get rid of the spoiled carrots to protect your family’s health.

What Are The Fantastic Uses Of Carrots For Health?

Besides these dangers of eating spoiled carrots, they also have a lot of beneficial uses. In this part, I will provide some great benefits of carrots. Let’s check it out!

1. Anti-Cancer

Carrots contain many phytochemical compounds ⁽¹⁾, which mainly include beta-carotene and other carotenoids. They have been shown to have natural anti-cancer abilities by promoting immunity and activating specific cancer cell suppressor proteins.

Studies also show that drinking carrot juice regularly can fight leukemia and reduce the risk of oral cancer.

2. Good For Eyes

Carrots contain a lot of Vitamin A that is very good for your eyes. Suppose you have problems such as myopia ⁽²⁾, visual disturbances, and other symptoms related to your eyes’ health. It would help if you regularly used carrots in your meal to promote the health of your eyes.

3. Improve Quality Of Skin

As I mentioned, the nutrient content of carrots has carotenoids. If fruits and vegetables contain carotenoids ⁽³⁾, they can improve the quality of your skin. The skin’s grade will be better, brighter, and healthier.

However, you had better pay attention to the number of carrots in your meals because if you consume a lot of carrots, eating many carrots can cause jaundice.

4. Best Choice For Weight Loss

Water makes up about 88 percent of carrots, and the rest of it is fiber and other nutrients. So, providing carrots for your body is an intelligent way to fill your stomach, reduce cravings without worrying about accumulating too many calories.

5. Good For Your Teeth And Gums

Another beneficial use of carrots is to protect your teeth and gums. So, carrots are an excellent solution for you to take care of your teeth. The crunchy and raw properties of carrots help clean plaque on your teeth and give you fresher breath.

Let’s see some sound effects for your body when using carrots for 1 week. Watch this video:

Extra Tips To Buy And Select Carrots In The Market

In this section, I will show you some effective tips to buy carrots in the market. You should follow these ways to buy high quality carrots.

1. Stay Away From Cracked Carrots

One of the food selection tips you need to remember is that you should only buy vegetables when they are still whole, fresh. If you see cracked carrots, do not buy them foolishly because they will not be preserved for a long time, less delicious.

In particular, with carrots whose outer skin is scratched, cracked, or bruised, no matter how cheap they are, do not buy them because they will easily be waterlogged, damaged.

2. Do Not Choose Light Carrots

When you pick up carrots in the market, you feel they are heavy. That means carrots are sure to be fresh, and nutritious. So, you should take them.

On the other hand, if you feel they are light, you can identify that the vegetables have been left for a long time, lost water, and lost nutrients.

You should buy carrots that are firm, with bright colors. They will have a characteristic sweet taste, and they are hard to  spoil if you store them for a week.

Listen to some helpful tips to buy good quality carrots in the market. Watch this video: 

FAQs About Carrots

To provide more information, I will answer some frequently asked questions about carrots. I hope that this section is helpful for you. Please take note of the questions that you are wondering.

How Are Your Carrots?

After a long trip, I have shared all the helpful information about carrots. Although I am exhausted, I am delighted because of all the fantastic knowledge I have provided you. I hope that all the practical information will bring a better and happier life for your family.

What problems are happening with your carrots? If your carrots are in those problems that I have mentioned in the above part, remember to discard them immediately. You also had better take advantage of all methods that I have provided to protect your carrots right now.

Let’s help other people know about the useful information by sharing this article since they surely have several issues with their carrots, and want to find ways to solve them. Do not hesitate to comment in the below chatbox. Thanks for accompanying me.

References

1. En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Phytochemical – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytochemical>.
2. En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Myopia – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myopia>.
3. Linus Pauling Institute. 2021. Carotenoids. [online] Available at: <https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/dietary-factors/phytochemicals/carotenoids>.