9

I recently got a bag of carrots out of the fridge, and find that most of them had turned black. What causes this, and are they safe to eat (with or without peeling)?

Paul Michaels
  • 1,343
  • 10
  • 23
  • 31
  • 1
    This was one interesting question... I wonder if you would buy carrots from market if they were black instead of organge :D (any other colour but [these](http://wyrdy.com/news/wp-content/uploads/carrots_of_many_colors.jpg) ) – bonCodigo Feb 11 '14 at 12:59
  • 3
    I have bought and eaten black carrots before now - but there is a marked difference between carrots that are black and carrots that have turned black – Paul Michaels Feb 11 '14 at 14:31
  • 1
    I definitely meant the latter, "carrots that have turned black". That's why I gave the piture link to make sure to include carrots with all possible colours, including the purple/black ones.. – bonCodigo Feb 11 '14 at 15:34
  • Apropos black carrot: Vintage carrot and camomile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjN546QGSMA – soegaard Nov 07 '15 at 12:24

3 Answers3

20

When carrots turn black, it is almost always caused by rot. I would definitely not eat them.

SourDoh
  • 11,418
  • 1
  • 30
  • 46
  • Is it not safe to simply cut the rot away? – Paul Michaels Dec 14 '13 at 14:50
  • 1
    @pm_2 if it's just the ends, you might be able to generously cut away the rotted parts, but if it's a lot of them in the bag, I wouldn't take my chances. – SourDoh Dec 14 '13 at 15:06
  • 1
    @pm_2 - I'd think that if the carrots were sitting around long enough to rot, even the parts not rotted would at least be significantly worse than before in flavor and texture. I can get 2 lbs of carrots at the grocery store for about $1.40 USD, 1 lb bag for $.89 USD. Are you really that hard-up that you have to eat rotten carrots? – PoloHoleSet Sep 20 '16 at 18:23
  • 4
    A few people have asked questions like: why not throw them away/why take the chance, etc. Whether or not I can afford to throw away a bag of carrots, surely we should be trying (as a society) to waste as little as possible. If we accept that, then it's down to forums such as this to advise on doing that safely. – Paul Michaels Sep 20 '16 at 19:04
3

The carrots are rotten. I would advise throwing them out.

Nan
  • 71
  • 3
3

Please toss them.... black is not good. They should be a bright orange (unless of course of it is the colored varieties, like purple)

oddsandhens
  • 41
  • 1
  • there are carrots that have the black color because of their genes and not from rot so black color alone does not mean rot. – Caters Aug 23 '14 at 13:04
  • Were carrots not originally purple? http://mentalfloss.com/article/12388/carrots-were-originally-purple – askrich Oct 15 '16 at 13:14