Manufacturing of tomato paste

Tomato paste is usually considered as semifinished product because it is commonly used as an ingredient in other food products. Tomato paste and puree are important ingredients for pickles and sauces.

Its primary use is in tomato ketchup but it is also used in salsas, pizza and pasta sauce, sweet pickles sauce, tomato chutney sauces and other thick sauce. Functionally it provides flavor, color and consistency. 

Tomatoes are washed, trimmed and then heated to a ‘breaking’ temperature.

During processing, seeds are removed at the pulping and screening stages to improve flavor and color.

The tomatoes are chopped at room temperature and immediately, or within seconds of crushing, heated to a temperature range of 60 to 90° C.

To refine the juice, broken and pre-heated tomato pulps are screened by pumping to a series of extractors or cyclones using an initial screen with a sieve diameter of about 1 mm followed by a second screen with a sieve diameter of between 0.4 and 0.7 mm.

Tomato paste is made from tomato juice by evaporation to a predetermined percentage of soluble solid usually in a range of 20-37%.

During this processing step, tomato pulp is additionally exposed to elevated temperatures of 50-95% and a number of chemical reactions largely of non enzymatic hydrolytic and antioxidative origin, continue to affect its original composition.

Once the tomatoes have been turned into paste, it can be stored for up to 18 months. The manufacturer then sells the tomato paste to other companies that add spices, flavors and colors to turn the industrial tomato paste into products like ketchup or tomato sauce.
Manufacturing of tomato paste