Sifter International supply the turnkey project for tomato processing line to get the finish product as tomato juice, tomato puree, tomato paste, tomato ketchup and sauce. 

Tomato Reception, Washing, Enzymatic Inactivation & Juice Extraction:

Tomatoes are continuously unloaded into tomato unloading and washing unit. Then Tomato will be sent to washing unit where the washing takes place by means of water jet and air jet. The manual washing operation can also be takes place for small scale processing by using concrete washing tank. Washed tomatoes are then transferred to sorting table where the tomatoes (damaged / rotten) that will be not accepted in the line and will be removed manually in the sorting table.

The washed and graded tomatoes are then transferred to fruit crusher where tomatoes will be crushed to form the slurry. This slurry is directly put into the "hot / cold break system" where it is heated to 65-70⁰C or 95⁰C in hot break system for the enzymatic inactivation. After this operation the slurry is transferred to pulper through suitable pump for separating the pulp and waste. The separated tomato seeds, skin and waste material is collected in a hopper and discharged through screw conveyor. Pulp obtained is called "Puree".

The refined tomato juice from pulper cum finisher is then fed to the double effect vacuum evaporator to be concentrated by boiling at low temperature under vacuum to preserve the organoleptic characteristics of the tomato. For batch type small scale processing this refined juice is fed to double jacketed steam kettle.

Final concentrated tomato puree at 14 Brix / tomato paste at 30 Brix coming out from evaporator / kettle would be further used for pasteurization in tubular pasteurizer and cooling at 45-50⁰C for filling in drums.

Tomato Ketchup / Sauces:

Normally tomato ketchup is being produced from existing tomato paste or puree during the off season, rarely is produced on-line from fresh tomatoes. 

Tomato paste at 30 Brix / Tomato puree at 14 Brix cold / hot break type is being taken from its 50L / 200 L drum and unloaded into the puree unloading tank.  It is then pumped by a lobe pump as per required feed rate to formulation tanks for tomato ketchup preparation. Drinkable / softened water is being added in a volume to make it desired formulation.

Other ingredients as per the formulation are prepared separately in tanks and then added to formulation tanks for uniform mixing. Sugar syrup, vinegar, salt etc are prepared and added to formulation tank according to volumes specified by the recipe. Then add spices and essential oils according to the recipe and mix again. Product recirculation is done for proper blending of product. Continuous agitation is provided by agitator for uniform blending of different ingredients of tomato ketchup. The final formulated mixture (ketchup) can now be pumped through a high pressure homogenize to tubular heat exchanger - Pasteurizer in order to pasteurize it at 90-95⁰C.

Major Equipments Used In Tomato Processing:

• Washing Unit
• Washing Water Filtration Unit
• Sorting Conveyor
• Fruit Mill
• Pulper Cum Finisher
• Vacuum Evaporator
• Double Jacketed Steam Kettle
• Pasteurizer
• Formulation Tank