Evaluation of physico-chemical and sensory quality of frozen green grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.)

The quality of grass peas (cv. Krab) intended for freezing was estimated at four degrees of seed maturity. The retention of basic physico-chemical in dices such as dry matter, sugars, dietary fibre, total acids, total nitrogen, protein nitrogen and ash, as well as the sensory quality of frozen seeds prepared for consumption were used as the criteria in determining the overall quality value. Relative to fresh grass peas, the losses in cooked frozen seeds reached 47–64% for the content of reducing sugars, 36–53% of total sugars, 7–14% of starch, 2–4% of dietary fibre, 13–16% of total acids, 8–9% of total nitrogen and 4–6% of protein nitrogen. In cooked frozen seeds, differences between the first and the fourth maturity degree reached 47% in the case of dry matter content, 71% for starch, 166% for dietary fibre, 12% for acids, 51% for total nitrogen and 94% for protein nitrogen. The sensory quality of the cooked frozen grass peas was estimated to be from 4.17 to 4.77 on a 5-score scale, and decreased with increasing seed maturity.