Acceptability of green soybeans as a vegetable entity

A profile of the sensory characteristics of green soybean and consumer intent of purchasing the product were determined. Thirty-one green soybean genotypes from maturity groups III to VI harvested between R6 and R7 were frozen, boiled, shelled, and evaluated for color, texture, sweetness, nuttiness, beaniness, oiliness, aftertaste and overall eating quality by three sensory panels. Results showed highly significant (p <0.01) variabilities among the genotypes in all sensory parameters and highly significant correlations among several parameters. The green soybeans, when boiled, ranged from lightly green to green, were slightly resistant to chewing, slightly nutty, slightly beany, not oily, imparted a pleasant aftertaste and had a fairly good overall eating quality. The green soybeans would be potentially acceptable as a vegetable in the frozen state and for use in recipes. When selecting genotypes for production, consideration should be given to the sensory attributes of the genotypes, because there was significant variability among the characteristics of the green soybeans, and several characteristics together enhanced the overall acceptability of the vegetable soybeans. To further increase the acceptability of green soybeans as a vegetable, geneticists need to consider breeding a vegetable soybean that has as many desirable sensory attributes as possible.