Industrial Processing Line

Tomato Paste Processing line

The industrial production phases of tomato paste

The industrial production of tomato paste leads to the physical, chemical, sensory-sensory fresh product transformation, which it appears like a berry. All that is crucial to be able to ensure a greater preservation and a broader way of use.

 The preservation of the tomato is known for centuries and our ancestors have already studied the different ways to use it during the whole year, just for example, the dried tomatoes are cut and dried on the sun or squeezed and concentrated by slow cooking.

Only in the second half of the nineteenth century, in parallel with the transformation of the diet, there has developed a business, first artisan and then industrial processing of canned vegetables, which found in the Parma area privileged place of election.
Today, important canning companies, leaders in their respective market sectors, working massive amounts of product following methods of processing and using technologies developed over time.

Foods and Surrounding follows you into one of these and we try to follow, gradually, the several stages of production, trying to understand the importance of each them.



The tomato fruit is a berry. The aim of Food Technologist, the Agronomist and the Food engineer begins when they have to study, improving or creating a process line for the tomato paste.

The tomato fruit is a berry. The aim of Food Technologist, the Agronomist and the Food engineer begins when they have to study, improving or creating a process line for the tomato paste.

This is because the nature of the raw material with its own characteristics to set up the rules for the production line, as well as the starting point until the end point.


General speaking, the process of industrial tomato paste can be schematically into three parts:

1.    PRELIMINARY PHASES, COMMONS TO ALL PRODUCTS

Receipt of raw material, quality assessment, weighing and calibration, unloading, sending lines, washing and sorting; receiving the packaging material and the ingredients and their sending to the production lines.

2.    SPECIFIC PHASES OF PRODUCT

Subsequently, the operation of washing and sorting (common to all processes) the treatment for the tomatoes depending to the derivatives that they have to be obtained:

- Juice, puree and concentrate packed in tin, glass or aseptic containers to the final consumer;

- Whole peeled tomatoes and non-whole canned or glass or aseptic containers to the final consumer;

- Tomatoes unpeeled canned or glass intended for end consumers;
- Juices, past, pulp and concentrated places in aseptic drums for subsequent rework or for sale between processing industries;
- Sauces and ketchup.

3.    FINAL PHASE COMMON TO ALL PRODUCTS


Labeling of containers, packaging (drums, cardboard, Thermo, etc.) In addition, final storage.



 Tomato receiving Unit

The tomato as raw material comes into the factory in huge plastic boxes. The caissons (caissons truck or farm cart) or in bins (bins) from about 350 kg.

Each one, it is transported by big vagon. The first step is critical and it can affect the quality of the final product, since there are precise timing for the collection of the fruit in the load mode of the caissons, preventing damage to the fruits themselves, Rates accurate for the transport.

Excessive stop outbreaks cause fermentation, which it would alter the organoleptic characteristics of the product.



 EVALUATION OF FRUIT, WEIGHING.

Upon arrival of the raw material, the Quality control step takes place immediately to be able give the requirements of the company that they are:

- Quantity
- Type
- Appearance and transport
- Evaluation of biological, chemical and microbiological
- Management of corporate standards

After that the tomato is evaluated, taking a sample of a random sample, according to previously agreed rules between agricultural and industrial parts.

 These are fixed at the maximum rates allowed by products strangers (green fruit, earth and stones) and those of tomatoes with slight defects (partially yellow or green); after this initial visual inspection, it evaluates the residual sugar of the fruit; all of these elements will determine the final value. Then the game is weighed.


Washing
The bins are then unloaded with forklift and stored temporarily in yards; However, to avoid deterioration of the product, the dwell time should not exceed 24 hours. When the fruit is transferred in bulk, the means are positioned laterally to the tubs of receipt; powerful water jets are directed on the fruit, causing it to flow through special nozzles arranged on the sides of the vehicle and causing it to fall into channels filled with water.

This operation eliminates much of the inert material (mud, sand or stones) caused by mechanical harvesting on the field and you make a first surface wash; before being placed in the pools (or directly to the sorting belts manual) the tomato passes through the control of optical sorters that, similarly to those operating on the machines of collection, discard the defective fruit (green, yellow, etc.); these will be used as a natural fertilizer in the fields (improver), while the fruits suitable instead will end up in pools filled with water or directly on the lines of manual sorting.


Washing sorting
The altered tomatoes, especially if with moldy or rot, are took away from the line. The fruits unsuitable escaped the previous checks of optical sorters, pass under the eyes of the staff last sorting; their task control is facilitated by the fact that the rollers on which the tomato passes revolve on themselves, thereby rotating the fruits and exposing them to a closer look on the part of the operators manning the control. The staff assigned to this task then remove them manually; the product judged unsuitable is removed by placing it on small tapes mechanical (or hydraulic) positioned above the wash. After this check, the roller conveyor that transports the tomato, it assumes a position inclined upwards; during this last stage is the last wash with jets of water under pressure. It is essential to an adequate lighting system and a high turnover of personnel selection, because the operation a significant strain on sight and threatens to lose the necessary attention. Generally, each officer are assigned specific tasks of sorting: remove the green, remove the split or rot, remove the foreign material.


Integrated evaporated + hot break/cold break
The transformed tomato is sent to the blancher, where it is subjected to heating. The purpose of the heat treatment is to facilitate the detachment of the peel in the subsequent step of extraction of the juice. The heat, in fact, active pectolytic enzyme action, causing a rapid posting of links between peel and mesocarp of the fruit. The maximum activity of pectolytic enzymes it has at a temperature of about 70-75 ° C. Depending on the temperature applied will determine the characteristics and appearance of the concentrate:

- Technical cold-break. It operates at temperatures between 60 and 75 ° C, and aims to preserve maximum principles and organoleptic quality. You get a smoother juice, because this treatment facilitates stronger reduction of pectins of the fruit.

 - Technical hot-break. It allows to obtain the maximum yield in the extraction surpassing in the shortest possible time temperatures between 45 ° and 80 ° (where the activity of pectolytic enzymes is maximum) and arriving at 100 ° C; the product obtained is therefore more dense and viscous than that obtained with the system in cold break.

Often an Integrated Evaporated is required to lead to the best integrity of the product.

Flash cooler/ Sterilization
Sterilization of Empty Jars
All jams, jellies, and pickled products processed less than 10 minutes should be filled into sterile empty jars. To sterilize empty jars, put them right side up on the rack in a boiling-water canner. Fill the canner and jars with hot (not boiling) water to 1 inch above the tops of the jars. Boil 10 minutes at altitudes of less than 1,000 ft. At higher elevations, boil 1 additional minute for each additional 1,000 ft. elevation. Remove and drain hot sterilized jars one at a time. Save the hot water for processing filled jars. Fill jars with food, add lids, and tighten screw bands.
Empty jars used for vegetables, meats, and fruits to be processed in a pressure canner need not be presterilized. It is also unnecessary to presterilize jars for fruits, tomatoes, and pickled or fermented foods that will be processed 10 minutes or longer in a boiling-water canner.


Aseptic Filler
HEATING
The thermic  treatments of stabilization are generally fixed according to inactivation of yeasts and lactic acid bacilli, obtained by heating the product to about 92 ° C in pasteurizers Horizontal tubing bundle heated by steam or water maintained at a temperature a few degrees higher (filling hot) to that expected for the product to be treated; or you can use pasteurizers monotubolari series.

 In the case of pasteurization of concentrates of high consistency ("hot break", triple, etc.), Are advantageous heat exchangers, scraped surface, consisting of a hollow cylinder (stator), wrapped by a jacket within which fluid circulates heating (steam) and a second cylinder (rotor) which rotates inside the first, supported by a shaft. In the interspace between the two cylinders it is made to pass the product with a helical path, determined by the pressure exerted by the supply pump and by the dragging action of the rotor. The homogeneity of heating and the duration of the same is made possible by the action of appropriate scrapers fiber that, always retain the free heat exchange surface and cause a continuous mixing of the product.

PACKAGING HOT

Using volumetric fillers gravity or under vacuum. The high temperature filling allows, during the subsequent cooling, the creation of a zone is depressurized (vacuum) and then of a lower incidence of the reactions of oxidative chemical alteration; in the case of cans, even of a lower incidence of the reactions of corrosion of metal surfaces.

CLOSING PACKAGING
To fill immediately follows the crimping (canisters) or the folding (aluminum tubes).

PASTEURIZATION PACKAGING
After closing, the boxes are washed with a hot water shower, flipped and kept in this position for 2-3 minutes, enough to sterilize the pad before being sent to the cooling.

 During the packaging methods, boxes or tubes of small format are used (where the high ratio outer surface / quantity of product causes a very rapid lowering of the temperature) and that of the glass containers (in which the reversal of the pack is impossible) do not ensure that the temperature Hot product may be sufficient for the sterilization of the inner walls of the container.

To this hot filling it is followed by a further thermal treatment lasting only a few minutes in a boiling water bath.

COOLING

It is practiced by water spray; the process is accelerated when the cans are subjected to rotation.

DRYING
Outputs from the cooling zone of the packages are affected by hot air jets for a rapid drying.


ASEPTIC PACKAGING LINE

PACKAGING MATERIAL is sent to the specify step.

The bags or tanks are brought in areas of use in cardboard packages, from which are extracted at time of use.

HEAT TREATMENT

The concentrates are sterilized using equipment in indirect heat exchange, concentric tube, triple tube or scraped surface.

ASEPTIC FILLING

The sterilized concentrate is sent to a staging area, constituted by simple pipes or insulated from systems scraped surface, to allow a better uniformity and effectiveness of the treatment.

After that, the product is cooled to a temperature of 35-40 ° C.
The cooling may be achieved with heat exchangers completely analogous to those used for heating, by replacing naturally vapor cooling means (usually cold water or cooling liquids) or by means of systems under vacuum (flash cooler).

In this case, it enters constantly steam in the parts "at risk" of microbial contamination. The filling phase takes place in a special room, which must be isolated from the possibility of external contamination. Engages the feeding device into the entry hole of the bag, fill the container and finally to close it tightly. Sometimes it also injects nitrogen (inert gas) sterile give a slight overpressure.



 Ketchup Tomato Sauce Processing line