Considerable losses occur in the post-harvest process of the Brazilian bean production. The objective of this work was to evaluate the bean quality harvested at different moisture contents and dried using different air temperatures in a thin layer dryer. After cleaning and drying, the grains were fumigated and, soon after, conditioned in metallic recipients and kept under laboratory conditions during a period of 90 days. The evaluation of the quality was accomplished by classifying the beans and measuring the electrical conductivity, the color, the breakage susceptibility and the hardening degree of the grains, in intervals of 30 days. It was concluded that grains harvested with moisture content of 18.7% presented the best classification grade and physiological quality of the grains harvested at 20.6 and 18.7% was superior in comparison to grains harvested at 11.7%. The increase of the drying air temperatures did not have effect either upon the type or upon the color classification; however, it reduced the physiological quality of the grains. Regarding the grains storage, it was concluded that the classification grade remained the same; however, the physiological quality of the grains was reduced, and the grains tended to become dark.
storage; coloration; classification
