Industrial tomato paste making involves producing tomato paste in large batches using advanced factory equipment. The process includes cleaning, sorting, crushing, preheating, pulping, concentrating, and filling the paste into sterile aseptic drums. This method ensures a high-quality tomato paste with 28-30% concentration, free from additives, and with a shelf life of 1-2 years at room temperature.
The specific steps in industrial tomato paste making are: fresh tomatoes → cleaning → sorting → crushing → preheating → pulping → vacuum concentration → paste sterilization → final product.
First, the tomato bubble washing machine thoroughly cleans the fresh tomatoes. After that, workers carefully remove the seedbed and green immature tomatoes from the high-quality tomatoes. This process ensures a superior tomato sauce.
After we get clean and high-quality fresh tomatoes, we will use a tomato crusher to break the tomatoes into 3-5mm particles, and then transfer the crushed tomatoes to a two-stage beater to get 0.4-0.6mm tomato paste, but in order to improve Juice yield, use tubular tpe before beating
The preheater heats the tomato pulp to 60°C for 15 minutes. The tomato pulp yield of the two-stage beater is about 90%. After beating, workers separate the tomato pulp and seeds from the rest of the pulp.
We use a tubular preheater to process tomato puree. Specifically, there are two main processes. First, we heat crushed tomato paste to 85-90°C for 10-15 minutes. Alternatively, we cold crush the tomato pulp and then heat it to 55-60°C for 10-15 minutes. As a result, this process destroys pectinase activity, while preserving more pectin. Furthermore, it ensures product viscosity, softens the pulp for easier separation, and ultimately improves pulp yield.
The forced circulation evaporator first evaporates the raw tomato pulp (about 12 Brix) into thicker tomato paste (28-30 Brix or even 36-58 Brix). After that, we heat the tomato paste using a tube-in-tube sterilizer to eliminate bacteria. Consequently, this process extends the shelf life of the product. Typically, the sterilization occurs at 108-110°C and is maintained for 12 to 15 seconds.
Both the evaporator and sterilizer adopt internationally renowned brand control components. Moreover, they are made of 5U5304/516 materials to ensure the production of high-quality ketchup.
After the tomato is sterilized in the sterilization pot, we then use a sterile filter to transfer it into a sterile bag. During this process, sterilization takes place in a sterile environment at a temperature of about 40°C. To ensure aseptic conditions, the filling room is thoroughly sterilized by steam. Additionally, all processes occur in a completely controlled environment. As a result, the ketchup in the sterile bag can achieve a shelf life of up to 2 years.
