While there's nothing wrong with consuming these fresh, they're almost exclusively sold in the dried split form.The USDA's ORAC report which published the above value only labeled this item as; NDB 99457 - Peas, yellow, mature seeds, raw. This was sloppy on their part, as it gives the impression the pea is in the fresh form. We looked up the item ourselves (99457) in the National Nutrient Database and as expected, it appears they forgot to include a word in their ORAC report; Peas, yellow, split, mature seeds, raw. Therefore we can conclude this reading was for the split variety, not the fresh.What is the difference between green and yellow split peas? Both are processed the same way. The only difference between them is the type of pea used.With both, their skin is removed and they are allowed to dry, which causes them to crack or split. Sometimes this cracking is exaggerated using machinery. The advantage this method offers is that they cook faster and since their water content has been removed, they can be stored at room temperature for several months (or longer) and still be good to eat.Both yellow peas and green peas come from the exact same species, Pisum sativum, though you will not find the two colors growing on the same plant. What causes the different colors is a genotype expression; the green is recessive, the yellow variation is dominant. Purebred yellow plants (with "YY" genotype) are used to produce the split yellow pea variety, while the green ("yy") produces the other.
ORAC Source
USDA Database for the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of Selected Foods, Release 2 - Prepared by Nutrient Data Laboratory, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) - May 2010