Effect of domestic processing on nutrients and pesticide residues in chickpea

Abstract

Food quality and safety is an area of growing worldwide concern on account of its association with health. Food processing offers a suitable approach to deal with the current scenario of poor quality and unsafe food prevalent in the developing countries. Food legumes are widely consumed over the world on account of their nutritive value. The effects of common domestic processing techniques like soaking, germination (1, 2 and 3 day) and cooking (microwave, pressure and ordinary cooking) were studied on the carbohydrate, crude protein, mineral and vitamin content of chickpea. The effect of these processing techniques was also studied on the fate of chlorpyrifos and its metabolites in chickpea. It was observed that germination (1st day) leads to significant increases in the sugars, crude protein, the increase in Zn and Fe are high on day 1 with marginal increases in Mn and the losses in K, Ca, Mg and P are low on day 1. Even the contents of the riboflavin and niacin are the highest as compared to the other days. Germination (day 1) also resulted in almost complete elimination of chlorpyrifos and its metabolites in chickpea so germination of legumes is a simple, cost effective, suitable process for addressing the concerns of food quality and safety especially for rural populace of developing countries.