This study investigated the influences from various mineral components in seed coat of kidney bean and how they might relate to bean canning quality. Three different dark red kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cultivars grown in Wisconsin were studied to investigate the correlations of the mineral contents in the seed coat and seed coat splits in the canned beans. In the canned product, highly significant differences (P ≤ 0.01) in percentage of split seed coats were observed among the three cultivars studied. Significant negative correlations were observed between the percentage of seed coat splits and sodium (r = - 0.89,P ≤ 0.01), calcium (r = - 0.74 P≤ 0.01) and iron (r = - 0.79, P ≤ 0.05) contents in the seed coat. This study suggested that the mineral content of the seed coat of kidney beans may play important roles in the integrity of the seed coat during thermal processing.