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Beans are popular as a protein-filled legume of high nutritional value, being one of the most planted species in the world. However, recent years have seen a decrease in the consumption of beans, owing to the time necessary to cook it domestically. Thus, it is being replaced in people’s diets by other foods. An alternative preparation that supplies modern consumers’ demands is industrially processed beans. This article aimed to provide a literature review on the processing of canned beans. Few recent studies have been performed in Brazil on this subject, as most studies have focused instead on the technological quality of dry bean grains processing. In this article industrial processing concepts and features, production unit operations, and canned beans quality standards will be discussed. These efforts are expected to contribute to the Brazilian beans production chain, and consequently to increase consumption of canned beans and the demand for industrial processing of beans in both the domestic market and future product exports.

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Soybean oil has many important components, but for its maintenance it is essential that there is an appropriate storage, temperature, relative humidity and optimum grain moisture content, because the oxidation reactions occur by improper storage, causing product deterioration. The objective of this study was to evaluate the main changes in the quality of soybean crude oil, from grain storage in temperature of 30°C and different relative humidity (59.6%, 67.0% and 76.0%). Soybean grains were packaged in plastic recipients, where saturated salt solutions were added so the grains reached the desired moisture. The analyses of moisture content, lipid, acidity index, color, antioxidant capacity, specific extension by absorption in the ultraviolet region were realized during storage for 180 days, because they indicate the degree of oil oxidation. A completely randomized design was conducted, and analysis of variance and Tukey test were performed. The storage time caused changes in physical-chemical properties of the grains, indicating that the oil was degraded over time.

As well as most agricultural products, some medicinal plants need to go through a drying process to ensure quality maintenance, however each product behaves differently. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the drying kinetics of spiked pepper (Piper aduncum L.) leaves and determine their thermodynamic properties at different drying temperatures in laboratory scale. Leaves with initial moisture content of 78% w.b. (wet basis) were subjected to drying at temperatures of 40, 50, 60 and 70 ºC and air speed of 0.85 m s-1 in an experimental fixed bed dryer. The drying kinetics of the leaves was described by statistical fitting of mathematical models and determination of effective diffusion coefficient and activation energy. Enthalpy, entropy and Gibbs free energy were also evaluated for all drying conditions. It was concluded that, among the models evaluated, only Midilli and Valcam can be used to represent the drying of Piper aduncum leaves; the first for the two highest temperatures (60 and 70 ºC) and the second for 40 and 50 ºC. The activation energy was approximately 55.64 kJ mol-1, and the effective diffusion coefficient increase with the elevation of temperature. The same occurs with the values of Gibbs free energy, whereas the specific enthalpy and entropy decrease.