Cogent Food & Agriculture (Dec 2023)
Effects of storage temperature and relative humidity on cooking time and moisture uptake of selected common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) varieties grown in Ethiopia
Abstract
AbstractCommon beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L) are important legumes rich in nutrients. However, the defect to cook or hard-to-cook (HTC) defect is among the challenges of legume crops during storage. Hence, this study aimed to determine the effects of storage temperature and relative humidity (RH) on cooking quality and moisture uptake of the selected recently released common bean varieties. Different storage conditions combinations were used for the analysis: ambient storage at 25°C and 65% RH as control storage; storage conditions of 35°C and 75% RH; and 35°C and 85% RH were explored. Zoasha, Nasir, Awash Weten and control bean varieties show reduced moisture uptake and increment in cooking time. The moisture uptake of Zoasha reduced from 127% immediately measured after harvesting to 79% (45°C/85%RH). Nasir, Awash Weten and the control sample varieties of beans reduced their moisture uptake from 121% to 74%, 124% to 75% and 142% to 90%, respectively. Those results show that accelerated storage conditions had a significant (P ≤ 0.01) effect on the moisture uptake. The initial cooking time of Zoasha, Nasir, Awash Weten and control samples were 101 minutes, 104 minutes, 101 minutes and 89 minutes, respectively. But, at accelerated storage conditions, the cooking time increased significantly (P ≤ 0.01) by 120%, 117%, 95% and 115%, respectively, for Zoasha, Nasir, Awash Weten and control sample varieties. At accelerated storage condition, the control sample should have the lower energy consumption by decreasing the cooking time by 25%, 22% and 20% from Zoasha, Nasir and Awash weten, respectively. The result could give an insight for food processors, breeders and policymakers to consider the hard-to-cook effects for the aforementioned common bean varieties.
Keywords
