The technology of the manufacture of tomato paste can be divided into three parts:
1. Production of tomato juice.
The fresh tomatoes go to special water tanks . Raw material goes through elevators to reach an inspection band where the separation of leaves, roots, stems and other mechanical impurities take place. Then thoroughly washed tomatoes are crushed and heated. Heated tomatoes go into blending machine that separates the seeds and skins and produces the tomato juice.
2. Production of tomato paste.
The resulting tomato juice has a dry matter content of about 6%, then has to be thickened. Compression is performed in a vacuum evaporator. There are several types of tomato concentrates:
Single - 12-14% dry matter (Brix method);
Dual - 28-30% dry matter;
triple - from 36 to 38% dry matter;
Tomato concentrate with different percentage of dry matter could be produced by a customers’ desire.
Thickening of the juice is carried out under vacuum in the vacuum evaporator. The purpose of the method is to achieve vaporization at 80 º C, whereas double concentrate is most used.
3. Filling.
The resulting paste is sterilized continuously at 123 º C, after which the puree is cooled to 45 º C. The already sterilized puree is filled into aseptic bags for aseptic storage. Aseptic bags are made of polypropylene and are placed in metal barrels. There are different cuts: 207, 100, 10 and 5 kg.