Are carrots becoming less nutritious?

Are fruit and vegetables less nutritious than they used to be? And is declining soil quality to blame?

Loyal listener Sarah got in touch to ask us to investigate an interesting quote from Dr Karan Rajan in a BBC news story.

“We know our soil is not as nutrient dense as it was decades ago,” he said. “So a carrot in the 1950s will be far more nutrient-rich than a 2026 carrot.”

Is this really true? wondered Sarah. We wondered the same, so we spoke to some experts on fruit and veg nutrition to find out.

CONTRIBUTORS

Robin Marles, a former senior scientist in Canada’s Food and Nutrition Directorate

Professor Steve McGrath, a research scientist at Rothamsted Research

CREDITS

Presenter: Tim Harford

Series Producer: Tom Colls

Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele

Sound Mix: Sue Maillot

Editor: Richard Vadon