Canned Tomato Processing Machine

There are many tomato products that can be filled into metal cans, like concentrated tomato paste, tomato puree, tomato sauce or ketchup, peeled whole tomatoes, packing tomato products into cans has the advantage of long shelf-life products and easy to consumable. Canned tomato paste or ketchup is very popular in Africa, the Middle East, North America and South Asia.

The metal can volume for tomato products ranges widely from 70g-5kg to meet personal consumption and home consumption requirements. The most commonly used cans are 70g, 250g, 350g, 400g, 500g, 800g, 1250g, 2000g, 4500g.

Canned tomato processing machines include fresh tomato washing and sorting machine, tomato crushing and pulping machine, formulation machine(for ketchup or tomato sauce producing), tomato paste evaporator, tomato paste (ketchup) pasteurizer and homogenizer, tomato paste (ketchup)canning machine, and sealing machine, tomato paste or ketchup secondary pasteurizing cooling machine, canned tomato paste or ketchup packing machine, CIP system, water treatment system(for ketchup dilution), boiler, cooling tower, etc.

To make the tomato paste or sauce has a long shelf life, there are two stages pasteurizing process before filling and after filling, and when for filling, infusing liquid nitrogen into metal cans can also remove the air in the cans and extend the shelf life of tomato products.

The speed of canned tomato processing equipment from 500 cans per hour to 50000 cans per hour according to metal can volume and input material capacity.

We offer turnkey project for processing tomato paste, tomato puree, tomato sauce/ketchup, tomato juice and tomato powder.

Canned tomato paste processing technological flowchart: Fresh tomatoes need to be washed and disinfected by disinfection solution and clean water, then hot break or cold break tomatoes into tomato pulp, then the tomato pulp will be evaporated into the tomato paste and after sterilized then filled into the metal cans. The concentrated tomato paste is pure 100% organic tomato products without any additives, many Africa countries use the canned tomato paste as cooking ingredients.

Canned tomato sauce/ketchup processing technological flowchart: Using the concentrated tomato paste as raw materials, then transfer the tomato paste into formulation blending tank by piston pump, then mixing all ingredients evenly to dilute the tomato paste into the ketchup, after that, the ketchup will be pasteurized and homogenized, then filled into metal cans. Canned tomato sauce or ketchup is one of the most common seasonings when we are eating. It usually includes water, sugar, salt, vinegar, antioxidant and other ingredients.

Uses ultrasonic vibration to clean tomatoes which greatly reduces the water and disinfectant solution necessary to clean produce. This washer will be able to be used for cleaning a wide range of fruits and vegetables.

Tomato crushing adopts a hammer crusher, and the large-capacity crusher can be crushed by a crushing pump. The crushed tomato pulp is between 3-5mm.

Tomato pulp generally needs to be heated at 90-95°C for 8-10 minutes, and the heated tomato pulp is controlled at 80-85°C. The tomato pulp must be preheated in time and the temperature rises quickly. The preheating equipment uses a tubular preheater. By preheating and softening, the pectinase is destroyed, the viscosity of tomato pulp is ensured, the pulp and skin of the tomato are easy to separate and beating.

The tomato beating machine adopts double-stage beating. The first screen is 1.2mm and the second is 0.6mm. The dry humidity of the discharged residue should be pinched in the hand and no juice drips. It is advisable to have juice on the palm after relaxation. Excessive humidity affects the juice yield. After the tomato is beaten, the residue rate is controlled at 3%-4%.

After the tomato pulp passes through the beater, the water content is generally high and the soluble solid content is low. Therefore, it must be concentrated to evaporate a part of the water to make the tomato paste reach the specified concentration, and the flavor of the concentrated tomato paste will also increase.

Large-capacity (greater than 2 tons of feed per hour) tomato paste is concentrated by forced circulation evaporator, and small-capacity and batch-produced tomato concentration can be completed through a vacuum concentration pot.

A typical tomato sauce/ketchup would be based on pulped and sieved tomatoes, and/or concentrated tomato paste. It would contain water, sugar, vinegar, salt and seasoning, it may also contain starch-based thickeners. To mix all ingredients, the blending tank will be used, which must be capable of dispersing powdered ingredients into the water to form an agglomerate-free product, after mixing, the tomato sauce or ketchup will have a smooth texture and deep red color.

The tube in tube pasteurizer will be used to pasteurize the canned tomato paste or ketchup. The pasteurizing temperature and time are 95℃-105℃ for 2-3mins, then cool down to 85℃ for canning. Before pasteurizing, the product may be passed through a high-pressure homogenizer or colloid mill to obtain the required consistency.

According to the poor fluidity of tomato paste or ketchup, the piston filling machine is specially designed to be used for filling. Each filling valve has a separate piston chamber, filling is accurate without dripping and leaking.

The whole machine is divided into two stations: filling and sealing, the liquid level is controlled in a quantitative filling, and the material temperature is generally filled with high temperature. The liquid distribution tank of the filling machine is equipped with an agitator, which is suitable for high concentration and accurate quantification.

The production speed can be set on the touch screen as required. All common faults are automatically alarmed and the corresponding fault cause location is given. According to the severity of the fault, the PLC automatically determines whether the host can continue to run or stop.

After the tomato paste/sauce is hot filled into metal cans, to extend the shelf life of the products, the metal cans need to do secondary pasteurizing by the water bath pasteurizer or spray tunnel pasteurizer. For the small cans with below 1kg, spray tunnel pasteurizer is preferred, and 3-5kg metal cans of tomato paste will adapt to the water bath pasteurizer to do the heat treatment. And the pasteurizing process will be 95-98℃ holding for 20-25 minutes. After pasteurizing, the canned tomato paste will be cooled down to 30℃ for the downstream packing.