Tomato Juice Processing Technology

Tomato juice is a sterilized beverage prepared by adding water, syrup and other flavor substances after fresh tomatoes are juiced. Tomato juice contains a variety of organic acids, which can effectively protect vitamin C from being destroyed, soften blood vessels, promote the absorption of calcium and iron elements, and help gastric juice to promote digestion. Moreover, tomatoes contain lycopene, which has strong antioxidant capacity and can achieve anti-aging effects. Tomato juice is conducive to promoting the secretion of saliva and gastric juice, which can achieve the effect of appetizing and promoting food absorption.

The tomato juice processing plant capacity is from 500kg per hour to 10000kg per hour available, and the tomato juice after sterilized can be filled into bottles, pouches, cans or other consumable containers.

Use our tomato juice processing machine, the tomato juice is red-ripened, without any additives except for a small amount of salt, bright red in color, uniform in juice, pulp particles evenly suspended in the original juice, no precipitation and stratification, and various natural nutrients in tomato juice is well preserved. The content of lycopene per 100 grams of fresh weight is more than 7.5 mg; soluble solids is more than 5%; total solids are more than 7%, the ratio of sugar to acid is 9~12, the pH value is 4.2~4.3, the vitamin C content of tomatoes is more than 12 mg, with a strong flavor and no peculiar smell.

The material of the tomato juice processing machine is made of SUS304 or SUS316L, which can meet food safety production and have a good function of anti-corrosion.

Before bottling or canning tomato juice, the pasteurizer will be used to remove all the bacteria in juice to obtain the long shelf life of the products.

Tomato juice can be obtained by squeezing from fresh tomatoes, or it can be made by blending and preparation from tomato paste concentrate. The process of processing from fresh tomatoes is: fresh tomato raw materials selection and cleaning, manual fruit sorting, tomato crushing, tomato pulp preheating, tomato juice extraction, tomato juice blending, degassing, sterilization, filling and sealing, tomato juice container secondary pasteurization, cooling, packaging. The processing technology by using concentrated tomato sauce as the raw material is relatively simple, and you can refer to the tomato sauce/ketchup processing line. The end products of the tomato juice can be filled into bottles, tin cans or cartons.

Fresh Tomato pretreatment system 

The system is including the cleaning and sorting of fresh tomatoes, crushing them into 3-5mm tomato pieces, and then preheating them through a tubular preheater. The selection and cleaning process is of great significance to the quality and stability of the final tomato juice. The preheating and crushing processes are important processes that affect the consistency of tomato juice and the yield of juice. There are two crushing methods: hot break and cold break. Due to the low temperature of the cold-breaking sauce, the endogenous enzymes (mainly pectin tertiary enzymes) are not completely inactivated. The pectin is enzymatically hydrolyzed into short chains, and the viscosity will be low, but the flavor and color are good. The hot break enzyme is inactivated thoroughly, the pectin is less damaged, the viscosity is good, the flavor and color are poor.

Tomato squeezing and juicing machine

Squeeze the crushed fruit pulp after heating, while removing the peel and seeds, it also adjusts the pulp particles. Generally, it can be operated by a screw juicer or a beater. The screw juicer squeezes the crushed pulp between the screw and the sieve to extract the juice, and the beater extracts the juice by impact, and the aperture of the sieve is about 0.4mm. The squeezing rate of good varieties of tomato juice is 75%-80%.

Tomato juice blending and seasoning machine 

As a seasoning for tomato juice, we can add wine vinegar, table salt, white sugar, lemon juice, etc. The blending and formulation process is in blending tanks, the blending tanks are equipped with stir to make all the ingredients mixed evenly and fully.

Degassing, homogenization and pasteurization of tomato juice

In the process of tomato crushing and blending, the air is inevitably mixed in, so after the juice is squeezed and blended, the tomato juice needs to be deaerated. At the same time, in order to refine the pulp particles and increase the consistency, a homogenizer can be used to make the tomatoes have a smooth feel through homogenization. Tomato juice contains pulp, which makes it a relatively viscous liquid. Therefore, it needs to be sterilized before filling. The HTST sterilization process is usually used (90-95°C for 40-60S). The sterilized tomato juice is orange-red, the sugar content is 4.3%, and the pH value is 4.4.

Filling and sealing of tomato juice

The containers used for tomato juice are metal cans, glass bottles or PET bottles. The pre-sterilized tomato juice is filled into a clean container. In order to prevent oxidation, it is necessary to quickly cool the sterilized tomato juice to 85-89°C and fill it into the container immediately. To prevent oxidation of the product, this filling method is called hot filling. It should be sealed immediately after filling.

Secondary pasteurization and packing of the tomato juice

After the filling is completed, for the sake of safety, the tomato juice needs to be sterilized twice, and the filled container is transported to the pasteurization tunnel or retort for secondary sterilization. The sterilization process is 90-95℃ for 15-20min. Then use cooling water to quickly cool the temperature of tomato juice to below 35℃ for subsequent packaging.

We offer turnkey projects for tomato processing plants, include process concentrated tomato paste, tomato puree, tomato sauce, ketchup, tomato powder and other tomato products.