Physiological changes of two varieties of pea stored in different types of packing and temperature Cambios fisiológicos de dos variedades de arveja almacenada en diferentes tipos de empaque y temperatura

Abstract

The pea, an economic source for small and medium farmers in the Andes zone, evidences an incipient postharvest handling and a null level of transformation. After the harvest and due to its temporary and perishable nature, the pea accelerates its metabolism, decreasing its quality and shelf life. An economic option that is available to producers and marketers to preserve their characteristics is the use of packaging and refrigeration. The objective was to evaluate types of packaging (low density polyethylene bag (PE-LD), perforated thermoformed plastic container (PE-HD) and polystyrene tray (PS)) and storage temperatures (0°C, 4°C and 18°C) in two pea varieties (Sureña and Obonuco Andina). An unrestricted random design with a 3x3x2 factorial arrangement was used, taking as factors temperature, packing and variety; and as study variables the kinetic constants (K) of percentage of sprouting, firmness, weight loss and color index. The results showed that, for the sprouting, the lowest value of K was shown in Sureña, in PE-LD at 0°C. The temperature affected the firmness of the grains, remaining at 0°C. The lowest weight loss was evidenced in PE-HD at 0°C, regardless of the variety. For the color index, the lowest K was found in PS at 0°C, in Obonuco Andina. With the Arrhenius equation in the variable color index, useful life times of 13; 7; 5 and 2 days were estimated at temperatures of 0°C, 6°C, 10°C and 24°C respectively.