To understand the postharvest characteristics of soybean sprouts, 5-day-old sprouts were harvested, packed in PE film, and stored at 4, 12, and 20~circC for up to 4 days. In addition, the sprout respiration rate was measured after storage at 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24~circC for up to 20h. During the first day of storage at 20~circC , the sprouts maintained temperature-dependent longitudinal growth, especially of hypocotyl length; hypocotyl and root grew 0.8cm and 0.2cm, respectively. The hypocotyl thickness decreased by 11, 13, and 18~% after 4 days of storage at 4, 12, and 20~circC , respectively. No temperature-dependent differences in fresh weight, dry weight, or water content were found, despite decreases of 3~% over the 4 days of storage. A significant postharvest decrease of 50~% in vitamin C content was observed in the sprouts stored at 20~circC for 3days. Based on the CO2 production rate, the soybean sprouts exhibited an increase in respiration in proportion to the storage temperature; sprouts stored at 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24~circC showed approximately 2, 5, 6, 11, and 17 times, respectively, than the respiration rate of sprouts stored at 4~circC . These results indicate the importance of low temperature storage during market circulation for minimizing the postharvest morphological and nutritional degradation of soybean sprouts.

• Young-Sang Lee
• Yong-Ho Kim