Effect of Processing on the Characterization of Hot-Break Triple-Concentrated Tomato Paste

Tomatoes are one of the most important specialty crops worldwide, and tomato products constitute a significant part of the food industry. Four processing steps were selected for this study to collect the samples. Three samples of four different direct processing steps were collected from tomato paste (Hot-break) to follow changes in some quality characteristics of tomato juice for paste and to investigate some physicochemical (T.S.S., colour, acidity (%) and chlorides), functional components (Vitamin C and Lycopene), rheological and microbiological (TBC, molds and yeasts, lactic acid bacteria, osmophilic yeasts, and Salmonella) properties. The results showed the existence of a highly significant effect of total soluble content and heat treatment (temperature and duration) on the microbial load of the tomato juice and paste. All the results of the tested microbiological characteristics showed a significant increase in the value in the initial stage of treatment before decreasing significantly in the latter part of the treatment. This could be due to the high-temperature treatments and sterilization of the finished product. Also, the study showed that the direct relationship between the concentration and the total soluble solids, rheological properties, colour, chlorides, and acidity.