Science based solutions to combat hard to cook development of common beans in a Ugandan context

Common dry beans form an important part of Ugandan diets making Ugandans the leading consumers of beans in the East African region. As for other regions in developing areas world-wide, common beans are an important sustainable contributor of food, nutrition, health and environmental security as well as livelihood to Ugandans. However, the hard to cook (HTC) defect that develops during the aging of beans limits their consumption and acceptance. In addition to an extended cooking time, which is detrimental to labile nutrients, cooking HTC beans requires high energy and water consumption. Unless less sensitive varieties are developed in the future, the practicality of storing beans at low relative humidity and temperature to prevent hardening remains in question in the context of Uganda. This project, therefore, intends to characterise Ugandan common beans in relation to sensitivity to HTC development during aging and subsequently develop a scientific basis for precooking common beans prior to drying into storage stable, easily regeneratable convenient products not susceptible to HTC development.