A wide range of products can be obtained from tomatoes, including tomato juice, paste, diced-peeled tomatoes, strained tomato pulp, sauces and powder. For the industrial market, tomato paste is probably the most important product because it is used as the basis for a wide range of other products. In general, the fruit is washed, sorted and pre-conditioned by crushing, peeling or cutting it to the required size. Depending on the particular requirements, the pre-conditioned fruit then undergoes heating, refining, pulping, reconditioning, evaporation, pasteurization and packing. Separation is a key part of the reconditioning stage of this process. By removing any moulds present, separating out the pulp and clarifying the juice, the manufacturer can control the colour, mould content and viscosity of the final product. These are the key parameters that determine quality, and thus have an influence on value further down the value chain.

In this experiment we focused on the quality parameters of tomato paste which has a very large production and consumption in our country

Black points of tomato pastes of groups B4,B6,B7 are 4,4,7 and in the  TSE standards maximum black point range is 2. B7 tests the home made tomato paste and black point is possible. Black point cause the burning of seeds and this cause the improper seed and peel separation. As talked home made tomato paste may be not proper separated. But  B4 and B6 were used Oncu and Mis labeled tomato paste to test so it is not acceptable. Maybe this party of tomatoes were burned and  it is a continuous process which may not be separated and not detected curing quality control or any improper working machines may cause this observation.

Reducing sugar content of all tomato pastes which tested were not at an acceptable level when compare with  TSE standards.Our result was close the standard.This fault would come from making mistake during the titration.If it is not,production factory can make adulteration. These results could cause from the type and production conditions of tomato produced.

Soluble solid values were in the acceptable value when we compare with TSE standards . These brix change may cause the not proper concentration process. Also tomato paste of group B1 and B3 have higher value soluble solid. So others solid contents are very low or not concentrated.

Salt concentrations shows a great variety in home made ones but it is slightly same for others without group B1 (tat),B3(tukas) and group B6 (mis). The cause of high concentration of salt in home made tomato paste is; at home made ones no additives can added to preservation and no aseptic filling and sterilization are applied. The purpose of increasing shelf life of the product,home made producers use salt to decrease microbial activity.

Acidity values of tomato pastes are changing group to group. And this may cause the characteristic of the tomato.But home-made values were very close each other.

The experiment seems to be successful for the training of tomato paste quality check but some results have unexpected values due to errors done during experiment. More practice may be beneficial in the future.
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