Immature pea seeds are now well adapted to be commercialized as a minimally processed product, popularly known as “fresh-cut”. Within the EUROLEGUME Project, the optimization of a modified atmosphere packaging has already been attained. It is helpful for preserving the quality of the pea seeds for up to 14 days.

Several qualities, and dietary characteristics of pods from 37 accessions originated from southern Europe (Greece, Portugal and Spain) were assessed, in an attempt to provide information on pod quality and nutritional properties and identify relationships between quality traits and origin of the accession. Most of the accessions tested produced cowpea fresh pods of acceptable quality and high dietary value, which indicates that they can be introduced to the market and constitute a valuable genetic material for the development of new improved varieties. This is an experiment conducted within the framework of the EUROLEGUME research project at the Agricultural University of Athens.