One of the defects I always review when teaching new inspectors about green beans is to be very careful if you think you find freezing injury of green beans.  When inspectors spot the translucent and watersoaked discoloration on green beans they usually assume they have found freezing injury, due to transit freezing or freezing at the packing house.

If freezing injury is indeed found, yes you will find the beans being translucent and watersoaked, but there will be a definite pattern of freezing injury.  You will find the affected beans in the top crates in the upper layers of the pallets if transit freezing is the culprit, or you will find freezing injury affecting the beans along one side of a crate or crates along one or more pallets if the freezing injury occurred at the time of shipment in a packing house’s cooler.

If the watersoaked beans are found scattered throughout the crates or cartons and scattered throughout the pallets then you have not found freezing injury but you have found a condition defect caused by a bacterial infection, as seen in the image above.  Some bacterial infections that affect beans exhibit water soaked areas that have a similar appearance to freezing injury. To eliminate confusion always check pulp temperatures and look for a distinct pattern of affected containers and affected stock in those containers which indicates freezing injury. In most cases bacterial infections will not tend to exhibit any pattern. One other clue that may indicate bacterial infection as opposed to freezing injury is a greasy, oily type of exudation accompanying the water soaked appearance of the beans. And finally, beans affected by freezing will either be frozen solid or be limp and flabby from injury. Those affected by bacteria are generally still firm.  If it is determined that bacteria instead of freezing injury affect the beans, the percentage of damage or serious damage shall be determined on the basis of appearance and the defect described (i.e. water soaked translucent areas).

The defect, damage by watersoaked translucent areas are scored against the 10% tolerance for defects.