Jaison Martinez, master’s degree holder in Food Science and Technology from the UNAL Medellin campus.
In the world of carrots there is also an odious aesthetic competition. Not because of them themselves, but because of those who select them to take them to markets and those who ultimately buy them. But those that can be classified as the most “ugly” or “imperfect” offer more benefits for human health.
The consumption of this root vegetable is associated with visual health and the strengthening of the immune system. And in Colombia, according to the Unidad de Planificacion Rural Agropecuaria (UPRA), last year the departments of Antioquia, Boyaca, Cundinamarca and Narino accounted for up to 98% of the planted areas.
From all those regions, the municipalities of El Santuario and Marinilla (Antioquia) recorded in 2024 the highest carrot production in Colombia. It was there that researcher Jaison Martinez Saldarriaga, master in Food Science and Technology from the Universidad Nacional (UNAL) Medellin campus, arrived with a question: do deformed, cracked or stained carrots stop being useful after harvest?
Carrots that do not meet aesthetic criteria
To answer it, he carried out 40 samplings on farms in Marinilla and El Santuario, where he collected around 5 kg of carrots for each type, reported the UNAL News Agency. Martinez Saldarriaga collected commercial carrots (those that are sold) and non-commercial ones, which are classified into four groups:
- Outside standard size (less than 10 cm or more than 25 cm)
- Deformed
- Cracked
- With superficial pathological damage such as black spots, that is, externally affected by fungi or bacteria.
“Many of these carrots are not damaged internally, but do not meet aesthetic or uniformity criteria required by the market, but after proper cleaning and cooking processes they can be suitable for human consumption,” said the researcher, quoted by the UNAL News Agency.
“In the market squares of these municipalities, sacks of carrots with imperfections are usually sold for as little as 10,000 pesos (US$ 2.74) or 15,000 pesos (US$ 4.12), while a sack of ‘normal’ ones can cost up to 110,000 pesos (US$ 30), although both contain the same antioxidants and high added value,” he added.
To verify whether “imperfect” carrots were really less nutritious, Martinez Saldarriaga took them to the laboratory, and what he essentially did is something similar to “squeezing” them chemically to see what they contained. For this, he evaluated their antioxidant capacity, that is, how well they can neutralize free radicals, which are unstable molecules associated with cellular aging and various diseases, explained the same outlet.
Results break consumers’ intuition
He first washed, peeled and ground them until obtaining a homogeneous mixture, and then used water and alcohol to extract their active compounds, separating them from the rest of the plant tissue. He then filtered that extract and tested it against free radicals under laboratory conditions.
There he used tests that work like thermometers of antioxidant capacity: the higher the result, the greater the protective capacity, and these changes are evidenced by alterations in the color of the samples, which go from yellow or light tones to intense blue. In addition, he measured total phenols, natural compounds that indicate the amount of antioxidant substances present in each sample.
The results break with consumers’ intuition: discarded carrots—especially cracked or with superficial stains—not only match commercial ones, but in some cases surpass them. Some samples even doubled their antioxidant capacity in the laboratory. In other words, carrots that are less attractive to consumers can be equally or more beneficial from a nutritional point of view.
The explanation would lie in the plant’s response to stress, since when a carrot grows under adverse conditions, such as environmental changes, deformations or attacks by microorganisms, it activates defense mechanisms and produces more protective compounds. Those compounds are precisely antioxidants. The analysis identified around 90 compounds in total, including flavonoids and other metabolites associated with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
Compounds such as 4-methoxyflavonol and nuciferine stand out, associated in scientific literature with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties, and even with anticancer potential. This suggests that these carrots, far from being waste, could become a valuable raw material for industries such as food, cosmetics or pharmaceuticals.
However, today most of them end up as feed for livestock, fertilizer, or are simply lost in the field, which reduces producers’ income and wastes valuable resources.