Processing Technology for Improving the Quality of Tomato Product and Developing a Value-added Tomato Processing Derivative

摘要

Nowadays, two conventional thermal processes, namely "cold break" and "hot break" procedures, are applied in the industrial production of tomato-based products. It is believed that the initial "break" stage is critical to the quality attributes of the final product. Hot-break (HB) products (break above 90 °C) maintain higher viscosity at the cost of degraded color and flavor, as compared to the cold-break (CB) products. The relatively low viscosity of CB tomato product is believed as results from the enzymatic break-down of pectin and release of water-soluble pectic oligomers, whereas HB destroys enzyme activity and solubilizes more intact pectic polymers. We proposed that a twin-screw processing technology at high temperature with shear (HTS) will yield a better-quality tomato product, compared to conventional manufacturing technology (HB and CB). To verify this, the physical and chemical properties of tomato products were analyzed. In addition, this processing technology used whole tomatoes instead of chemically peeled ones, thus tomato pomace from this technology can be utilized directly without going through a chemical wash. Tomato pomace (skin and seeds) from this processing technology can be developed as either a 'filler' for tomato products or a good source of nutritional supplement. The result of this study showed the HTS processing method yielded a better-quality tomato product and a value-added tomato pomace.