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Tomato paste, ketchup and sauce
Hot break paste 28–30 °Brix, cold break paste, ketchup, sauce, puree
Tomato paste, ketchup and sauce line by GEM Foodtech, Kolkata, India — capacity 5 to 60 tonnes of tomato per hour, final yield 16% of raw intake, delivered as a turnkey plant with installation and commissioning worldwide.
The commercial reality
Tomato is an evaporation business. Roughly 5.6 tonnes of fruit make one tonne of 28 °Brix paste, which means the evaporator, not the front end, sets your economics. Everything before it exists to deliver clean juice to the evaporator without losing colour or viscosity.
Process flow diagram
Generated for the standard configuration. Yours is redrawn to your product mix, capacity and site.
Process chart
Every stage with the equipment that performs it, the operating parameter and the control point that decides quality.
| # | Stage | Equipment | Parameter | Control point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Reception and flume | Fruit and vegetable washer | Water flume unloading, stone trap | Field soil and stone removed |
| 02 | Washing and sorting | Inspection and sorting conveyor | Bubble wash then roller inspection | Mould count controlled at intake |
| 03 | Chopping | Slicer, dicer and shredder | Chopper, 15–25 mm | Feed size uniform for the hot break |
| 04 | Hot break | Hot break system and pre-heater | 88–95 °C hot break, or 65 °C cold break | Enzyme kill decides final viscosity |
| 05 | Pulping and finishing | Pulper and finisher | Turbo extractor, 0.8 mm then 0.6 mm | Skin and seed separated |
| 06 | Evaporation | Evaporator, vacuum pan or multi-effect | Double or triple effect, 55–70 °C vacuum | 5 → 28–32 °Brix |
| 07 | Sterilising | Pasteuriser, tubular or plate | Tubular, 95–105 °C | Commercial sterility |
| 08 | Aseptic filling | Aseptic and hot filling line | Bag in drum or bin, 220 kg / 1,000 kg | Aseptic seal |
| 09 | Formulation, for ketchup | Tanks, kettles and blenders | Jacketed blender with vacuum | Brix, salt, acidity and viscosity to recipe |
| 10 | Bottling | Filling, sealing and packing line | Hot fill, cap, cool tunnel | Fill weight and seal integrity |
Mass balance
Basis of 1,000 kg of raw material. Change the tonnage below and the whole table rescales.
| Stage | Output, kg/h | Yield | Loss, kg/h | Where the loss goes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato received | 1,000 | 100% | 0 | — |
| After washing and sorting | 950 | 95% | 50 | Rotten and green fruit rejected |
| Juice after finishing | 900 | 90% | 50 | Skin and seed to drying for feed or lycopene |
| Paste at 30 °Brix | 160 | 16% | 740 | Water evaporated, recovered as condensate |
By-products: Skin and seed dried for lycopene extraction or cattle feed; condensate recovered for CIP make-up.
Equipment schedule
Core machines for this line. Conveying, tanks, CIP and utilities are added to suit the layout.
| Equipment | Capacity range | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Fruit and vegetable washer | Preparation | Removes field soil, latex and surface load with recirculated, filtered water. |
| Inspection and sorting conveyor | Preparation | Manual or optical removal of unripe, damaged and foreign material. |
| Slicer, dicer and shredder | Preparation | Uniform slices, dices, strips or kibble — cut geometry sets drying time. |
| Hot break system and pre-heater | Thermal | Rapid heating that kills pectinase and holds viscosity in tomato and fruit. |
| Pulper and finisher | Separation | Single or twin stage; separates pulp from skin, fibre and seed. |
| Evaporator, vacuum pan or multi-effect | Thermal | Concentrates pulp or juice under vacuum at low temperature. |
| Pasteuriser, tubular or plate | Thermal | Controlled hold at temperature with regeneration to cut steam use. |
| Aseptic and hot filling line | Packing | Aseptic bag-in-drum, hot fill, or can and bottle filling and seaming. |
| Tanks, kettles and blenders | Utility | Jacketed mixing, cooking, holding and batching in SS 304 or 316. |
| Filling, sealing and packing line | Packing | Weighing, filling, sealing, metal detection and case packing. |
Questions we get on this line
Hot break or cold break?
Hot break gives high viscosity for ketchup and sauce. Cold break gives better colour and flavour for pizza and pasta paste but lower consistency. Many plants run both and sell to different customers.
How much steam does the evaporator need?
A triple effect uses roughly 0.4 kg steam per kg of water evaporated. On a 30 t/h line that is a large boiler decision, and it is the first thing to fix in the feasibility.
What capacity range does the tomato paste line cover?
Standard GEM Foodtech builds cover 5 to 60 tonnes of tomato per hour. Larger duties are engineered to order — the right size is set by the raw material supply through the season, not the nameplate figure.
Is this supplied as a complete turnkey plant?
Yes. The Tomato paste, ketchup and sauce line is delivered end to end — feasibility, pilot trial on your own material, engineering, manufacture in Kolkata, installation, commissioning and operator training — or as individual machines to fit an existing plant.
Want this line costed for your tonnage?
Send the raw material specification and the capacity you are targeting. You get a flow diagram, an equipment schedule and a budget number.