Study on Transpiration of Chickpea Sprouts (Cicer Arietinum L.) in Closed Modified Atmospheric System

Transpiration is an important physiological process that affects the quality attributes of chickpea sprouts, such as package weight, color, appearance and texture. A loss in weight of only 5% may cause fresh produce to lose freshness and appear wilted and it is an important parameter to be considered while designing appropriate packaging system. To measure the transpiration rate an experimental setup was developed to monitor the mass loss of chickpea sprouts at different atmospheric temperatures (5, 10 and 15°C) and 75, 85 and 95% relative humidity. Mass loss of fresh packed chickpea sprouts was measured and transpiration rates were calculated for each treatment. Transpiration rate of sprouts varied from 1.85 mg•cm-2•h-1 to 2.15 mg•cm-2•h-1 under all the combinations of temperature and humidity tested.