Folate retention in dried legumes after different methods of meal preparation

Abstract

Twenty-five different samples of legumes were analyzed for total folate. A composite sample of each legume was prepared and assigned to usual cooking time categories, 20, 90 and 150 min. Within each cooking time the legumes were pretreated with a quick soak (brought to a boil and held for 2 min, covered and left to soak for 1 h) and a long soak method (soaked in water overnight for 16 h). The average folate retention in legumes cooked for 20 and 90 min differed significantly ( p ≤ 0·05). The mean retention for folate in legumes in the 20 min cooking category was 60% without presoak, 18% for quick soak versus 35% for long soak, and for 90 min cooking 31% for quick soak versus 42% for long soak. There was no significant difference ( P > 0·05) in folate retention between quick (41%) and long soak (44%) pretreatment for legumes in the 150 min cooking category. The results indicate that presoak treatment can affect folate retention in meal prepared from legumes.