Issued March 28, 1910. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY Circular No. 54. 

 H. W. WILEY, Chief of Bureau. 



ANALYSES OF CANNED PEAS AND BEANS, SHOWING COMPOSITION 

 OF DIFFERENT GRADES. 



By W. L. DUBOIS, 



Acting Chief, Buffalo Food and Drug Inspection Laboratory. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In the usual commercial canning processes the green peas are 

 separated from the pods, put through a cleaner, and then graded into 

 several sizes. They are next passed through a bath of hot water, for 

 the purpose of blanching, and are thenfilled into the cans, which already 

 contain some liquor consisting of a simple brine, to which a certain 

 amount of sugar is sometimes added. The cans are capped and 

 soldered and processed in a steam kettle for a period of about thirty 

 minutes. The product of this procedure is the ordinary canned pea 

 familiar to everyone. 



Another kind of peas found on the market is prepared from dried 

 green or Scotch peas grown in Michigan and Wisconsin. These 

 peas are received by the packer in a dry condition and are first 

 soaked in large tanks for a period varying from twelve to thirty-six 

 hours, depending upon the season of the year and the temperature. 

 This soaking process is usually so conducted as to carry off any for- 

 eign material that may be present, thus serving the double purpose 

 of softening and cleaning the peas. After being sufficiently soaked, 

 they are blanched and canned, and processed in a manner similar to 

 that employed for the fresh peas. 



Soaked peas are occasionally found on the market bearing various 

 fancy labels and are sometimes presented to the customer as fresh 

 peas. This investigation was made primarily to obtain data regard- 

 ing the composition of fresh and soaked peas with a view to distin- 

 guishing between the two classes of goods. Incidentally, some de- 

 terminations were made on green peas before being processed in order 

 to determine, if possible, what changes take place during canning. 

 As will be seen from the results, however, the figures obtained are not 

 28750 Cir. 5410 



