Is your current evaporation system consuming too much energy—or worse, overheating your tomato paste and destroying the deep red color and natural flavor that consumers demand?

The concentration stage is the heart of any tomato processing line. It is also where most of your operational costs are incurred—and where the greatest opportunities for energy savings and quality preservation lie. A properly designed tomato paste concentration system can dramatically improve your product quality while cutting steam consumption per ton of finished product.

How modern multi-effect evaporation works — and why it matters:

In a multi-effect vacuum evaporator, tomato juice is heated under reduced pressure, allowing water to evaporate at lower temperatures than atmospheric boiling. The vapor generated in the first effect becomes the heating medium for the second effect, and so on. This cascading energy use makes multi-effect systems significantly more efficient than single-effect designs.

Key technical considerations for your concentration system:

Thermal Protection of Color and Flavor — Tomato lycopene and volatile flavor compounds are highly sensitive to heat. Advanced concentration systems maintain high vacuum levels within the evaporator to keep boiling temperatures low. Some designs incorporate pre-evaporation units combined with multiple evaporator lines operating at different concentrations, enabling precise control over the final product's viscosity and color.

Flexible Concentration Targets — Depending on your end-market requirements, the system can produce paste at 28–30%, 30–32%, or 36–38% solid content. This flexibility is particularly valuable if you supply both bulk industrial ingredients (which may require higher concentration for transport economy) and retail consumer products (which may need a lighter texture).

Hot-Break vs. Cold-Break Compatibility — The concentration system must be paired with the correct upstream processing. Hot-break systems produce higher viscosity paste and are typically used for ketchup and sauce bases, while cold-break systems yield lower viscosity with fresher flavor, ideal for juice and reconstituted products.

CIP/SIP Integration — Tomato paste is highly viscous and prone to sticking. An integrated Clean-in-Place system ensures that evaporator surfaces are thoroughly cleaned between batches, preventing burnt-on deposits that degrade heat transfer efficiency and pose contamination risks