A Nutritional Profile of Fast Cooking Bean Germplasm.

Dry beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) require long cooking times to become palatable.  Genetic variability for cooking time is as much as 70 minutes.  Fast cooking bean varieties offer fuel reduction and time saving value to consumers.  The potential nutritional implications of fast cooking bean varieties are not known.  Fast cooking beans may have intrinsic compositional differences that directly relate to nutrient composition.  In addition, the varied time in the cooking process may influence nutrient retention and bioavailability.   The objective of this research was to determine nutrient composition and retention of fast, moderate, and slow cooking bean varieties of four different market classes post-harvest and after a year of storage.  Intrinsic differences in protein, total starch and resistant starch were related to differences in cooking time.  Fast cooking bean genotypes also had greater iron and zinc retention and greater iron bioavailability as compared to slower cooking genotypes of the same market class.