Effect of Processing Methods on the Quality of Tomato Products

Abstract

Tomatoes are one of the most important specialty crops in United States and tomato products constitute a significant part of the food industry. The quality of tomato paste and juice is evaluated through their viscosity, color, flavor and nutritional value. Four processing methods were selected for this study, in-cluding conventional hot break, waring blender with steam, steam injection, and high temperature with shear (HTS) in a twin-screw continuous processor. The HTS method applies high temperature with shear mixer during hot-break tomato processing that improves the efficiency of the extraction process and the resultant tomato products possessed higher consistency, viscosity, and ly-copene content. Lycopene is an excellent antioxidant with cancer-preventing properties. This work showed that HTS method, utilizing whole tomatoes, produced a superior tomato product with a better color, higher viscosity, and improved bioactive properties.