The effect of sous vide cook-chill (SVCC) and traditional cook-chill (CC) processes on the textural changes of dry peas was experimentally studied. For the same heat treatment larger peak puncture and compression forces were found for SVCC peas, which was mainly caused by the lack of extra water in the vacuum sealed pouch during cooking. A kinetic model was used to model the textural changes of cooked peas and values of the apparent activation energy were obtained. They were 146.7 kJ/mole (CC) and 125.8 kJ/mole (SVCC) for the peak compression force and 112.4 kJ/mole (CC) and 168.3 kJ/mole (SVCC) for the peak puncture force. This work demonstrated that higher cooking temperature not only helps to increase the rate of water take up of the peas during CC cooking but also has a significant impact on pea texture changes. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.