Free fruit and veg in Reception - unpeeled carrots!!

[Bluehedgehog]

My DD has just started reception and when I dropped her off, I noticed a bowl of manky unpeeled carrots for their free snack.
Apparently the teacher does not have time to peel them but they do kindly break the tops off and wash them but they are not scrubbed and still have the black lines in the peel (i.e. dirt). AIBU to think it is quite shocking to give young children carrots that look like they are ready to be fed to farmyard animals?! What about bacteria? pesticides? .
I am undecided about whether I should bring this up as an issue with the teacher or just provide DD with her own fruit and let them get on with it.

[MiseryBusiness]

Erm, I've eaten unpeeled carrots most of my life, my DCs have too and by the look of this thread the majority of people are the same so I think it may be safe to say that if the carrots are washed and probably if there not it'll be fine :)

[TashHag]

What I meant was, would you get rid of much pesticide just by washing, as opposed to peeling?

[hocuspontas]

And yet having seen the 'fertilizer' being sprayed out of a tanker onto an organic field I would scrub the organic carrots twice as much

[ReelAroundTheFountain]

I nervously came onto this thread, worried that everyone would be agreeing with the OP and saying how outrageous to offer little Jonny unpeeled carrots.

I am glad to see that the majority of people are not paranoid sensible

I would be beyond embarrassed to raise this with a teacher. In fact, I would be annoyed if their time was wasted on this rather than something useful like err, teaching.

[squeakytoy]

No pesticides in a Kit Kat. :) and I know which I would prefer for a snack.

[welliesandpyjamas]

@ squeakytoy...but is that a peeled kit kat?

[hocuspontas]

You would prefer a Nestle product to pesticides? Shame on you!

[niceguy2]

Erm, the carrots are washed yes? So any pesticides which were on the surface would be washed off yes?

If the pesticide was so potent that it still remained after a good wash then I assume also would have been absorbed into the carrot itself so peeling it wouldn't really make a difference.

Somehow I doubt OP's child will sprout another head!

[ragged]

I'm with you, MiseryBusiness.
Pesticides concentrations are higher in the skins, as far as I know, but there are also more nutrients (vitamins, especially). So it probably balances out, and the pesticide residue has to be tested to be within safe levels. It doesn't benefit farmers to use any more than they have to or produce food which will spur food scares.

Just send in your own approved snacks, OP, if you're so bothered.

[catsrus]

that info is from 1999 birds - legislation has changed and contaminant levels are nothing like that - more info here from 2009

here's the relevant excerpt


it did used to be a huge problem I know - as it's when I first really started buying organic, and I still do whenever it's an option - but the problem is nowhere near as bad as it was.

[lesley33]

I always peel carrots. I read some research about which fruits/veg most absorb pesticides. In carrots most residues of pesticides are in skind. If you peel them, you get rid of most of them.

[mymummyisasquarehead]

My DS has eaten unpeeled carrots, given a rough wash, since he was a baby.

He's still alive.

Worry not.

[Teachermumof3]

Ha ha ha ha that we'd have time to peel 30 carrots during lesson time!!

Would you be one of the parents complaining in AIBU...

'AIBU to want to complain that my child's teacher spends twenty minutes every morning peeling vegetables and not teaching my child...!'

[knittedbreast]

isnt it that the darker parts of the veg hold all the nutrients. i have to say i would wash them, if not for pesticides fox poo and wee.

the kids at my sons school get "interesting" looking veg and druit. isnt it the cheap/free stuff that ist asthetically pleasing enough to be sold in the supermarket?

if it isnt, it bloody well should be there is soo much waste

[SeaShellsInTheMoonlight]

Catsrus-thanks for picking up on birds' 1990's cut and paste job!!

Op-it's the snot, sneezing, nits, kids sent in who threw up the night before, cuts, grazes....I could go on but you get the point. Yabu

[Nanny0gg]

The fruit/veg is free (well, it isn't really, but you don't pay for it directly).
It has been washed.
It has some form of nutritional content.
Let them eat it or don't.

(That's if you let them out of their nice plastic, filtered air-conditioned bubble long enough of course).