Tomato Paste Processing Equipment

The tomato paste processing equipment is made of food-grade SUS304 material, which can fully meet the food production hygiene conditions.

The whole process steps for processing tomato paste are controlled by man-machine interface, which is easy to control and operate, with a high degree of automation, reducing labor costs, saving energy, etc.

The capacity of the tomato paste processing equipment is from 1 ton per hour to 30 tons per hour.

Tomato paste is the main tomato processing product, the processing technology and machine are very mature with the development of 50 years. The whole production line mainly includes water flumes for fresh tomatoes, tomato washing machine, fresh tomato elevator, tomato sorting platform, tomato crusher/tomato crushing pump, tomato mash receiving tank and transfer pump, tomato mash preheating machine, tomato pulping and refining machine, tomato pulp filtration machine, tomato pulp storage tank and transfer pump, tomato pulp evaporating machine, tomato paste sterilizer and filling machine.

Fresh tomatoes can be made into many products like tomato paste, tomato puree, tomato sauce, canned whole tomato, dry tomato slice, tomato juice and tomato powder, tomato extract, etc. This article will give a brief introduction to the processing steps of tomato paste processing equipment.

When the capacity of the tomato processing plant is big(above 10 tons per hour, we suggest clients build the flume, the flume can be concrete material, and the length should be matched with the fresh tomato input capacity.

Fresh tomatoes harvest from field, there will be soil and chemical residue on it, so it needs to use high-pressure clean water to spray and wash off the foreign matters. The air bubble tomato washing machine is made of SUS 304 material, the clean water can be recycled and the residue will be discharged off through a filter, saving water and high efficiency.

The fresh tomato scrape elevator is SUS304 material, and the scrape can also be made of food-grade plastic. On the elevator, there installed the spray nozzles, during tomatoes lift with motor drive, the tomatoes will be washed again with high-pressure water from nozzles. The speed of the elevator is frequency.

The tomato sorting machine is actually one roller conveyor, under the condition of roller rotation, the tomatoes will also be rolled forward, so the inspectors can check which are rotten or wounded fruits and pick them up to discharge through waste fruit screw conveyors, and the high fruits will be sent to crushing machine for further processing.

Tomato crushing uses a hammer crusher or tooth crusher to crush tomatoes into mashes. If the capacity is above 10 tons per hour, one crushing pump will be suggested to enhance the efficiency. The capacity of the crushing machine is from 1 ton to 30 tons per hour available.

The tomato mash will be pumped into one preheating machine to inactivate the enzymes. The tubular preheater will be used to heat the tomato mash to 60℃-80℃ as it is a high viscosity feature. The tomato preheater is composed of the steam control system, tubular heat exchanger for heating and cooling.

If the capacity is small with 1-2 tons per hour, to save the cost, there is no need for tomato crushing and preheating, fresh tomatoes after washing, will be sent to the pulping machine directly for pulping.

But for higher capacity, the tomato mash will be pumped to the double stage pulping machine to separate tomato peels, coarse fiber and seeds to get the tomato puree. After pulping, the tomato puree size will be only less than 0.4-0.6mm.

The tomato pulping machine is the key machine in tomato paste processing equipment. It consists of propellers, broken blades, beating paddle, sieve screen, etc. Tomato mash move forward under the action of the propeller, crushing blades are installed on the rotating shaft of the propeller, the crushing blades crush further of the tomato mashes, then the pulp which is less than 0.6mm will be filtered through sieve screen and flow to the pulp receiving tank, the tomato slag will be intercepted by sieve screen and discharged.

Most of the tomato pulp evaporators will be installed outside of the workshop due to the height limitation of the workshop. The tomato pulp will be pumped into the vacuum chamber of a forced circulation evaporator to get rid of the water in tomato pulp. After concentration, the tomato paste total soluble solids content will be 5-6 times higher than single-strength tomato puree. Because the evaporation takes place under a low-temperature vacuum state, there is little loss of color and nutrients of the tomato paste.

The forced circulation evaporator is the core machine in concentrated tomato paste processing equipment, the whole machine is made of SUS304 material, it consists of a heating chamber, evaporating chamber, condenser and vacuum device, all the key parameters include tomato paste PH value, evaporation temperature, Brix value, material inlet and outlet are all full-automatic controlled by PLC. Furthermore, the evaporator also equips steam and cooling water recycle device, it can greatly reduce steam and water consumption.

The tube in tube sterilizer is specially designed to do heat treatment of the tomato paste to extend the shelf life, concentrated tomato paste after thermal treatment, most of the bacteria will be removed. The tomato paste will be pumped into the heating tubes for heating, the heating tube is composed of four layers of SUS304 concentric tubes, the second layer jacket will feed the tomato paste, the other three layers will be hot water. As the tomato paste after concentration, the viscosity is about 100,000CPS at 29℃, some paste will be higher, so the tube in tube or scraped surface heat exchanger will be used.

Most of the concentrated tomato paste can be filled into 200kg aseptic bags in drums or IBC containers, the tomato paste aseptic bag filler is composed of filling heads, barrel feeding and discharge conveyor, electronic control cabinet. Before filling, the aseptic filler will do the CIP cleaning, then use the steam to sterilize the filling chamber to ensure the filling environment is aseptic, and also the whole filling process is fully closed. Tomato paste feeding is controlled by a flowmeter or weight sensor to make sure filling accuracy.

Some manufacturers also fill the tomato paste into the metal cans, the normal can size is from 70g to 2kg, for the canned tomato paste processing machine, please check this portfolio