Studies in the cold storage of peanuts

Shelled and unshelled peanuts packed in small gunny bags were stored at four temperature ranges, viz., 32–35° F, 42–45° F, 52–55° F and room temperature (71–92° F) for 9 months. The relative humidities ranged between 85% to 90% in the cold‐storage chambers and 50–82% at the room temperature. A parallelism was observed between the changes during storage in the moisture contents of the kernels and the acid values of the extracted oils and to a less degree, the changes in peroxide values. So far as germination capacities are concerned, shelled nuts should be stored at 32–35° F and unshelled ones at room temperatures (71–92° F). A free fatty acid content exceeding 1% was found to be associated with seeds of low germination capacity.