Improving nutritional quality of cool season food legumes

Abstract

Nutritional quality of food legumes includes the composition and functionality of the seeds, Composition is the main factor affecting nutritional value (contributions to energy and protein requirements, amino acid balance, digestibility, antinutritional factors, etc,), Functionality embraces preliminary preparation steps, digestibility, and cooking quality itself (physical aspects of food preparation, flavor, appearance, and acceptability), Factors affecting nutritional quality include genetic make-up; growing environment, including location and season, storage, insect infestations (in the field and during storage); and other factors, Nutritional quality parameters of cool season food legumes are tabulated, The improvement of nutritional quality will be considered in the light of the heritability of the chemical and physical factors which affect it. Strategies for improvement in nutritional quality are presented.