Responses of White Pea Beans to Various Humidities and Temperatures of Storage

MICHIGAN is the leading producer of white pea beans for. commercial canning. The crop is harvested and stored at a moisture content higher than ordinarily considered practicable in order to avoid slow, uneven soaking and cooking, and to avoid split beans, which are worthless for canning. As a result of the necessary and accepted practice of storing the crop at moisture contents of approximately 17 or 18%, considerable difficulty is encountered in storage, particularly when the beans cannot be moved in bulk from bin to bin. When beans are stored in 100 pound sacks, excessive rancidity, heating, and molding occur. The present study was initiated in an attempt to learn certain fundamental facts in regard to the behavior of beans when stored in air at various relative humidities and temperatures.