DEVELOPMENT OF A MACHINE FOR COLD PULPING OF TOMATO

The study was taken up to investigate the existing methods of tomato processing for pulp and fabricate an indigenous machine which may operate under room temperatures to isolate pulp, seed and peel from fresh tomato without heating activity. Machine parameters, such as the roller surface (flat serrated), variation in rollerclearance and rotational speed were employed for experimentation of cold pulping of tomato. All of these factors were employed in CRD statistical design with three replicates each. The analysis of variance was carried out using PROC GLM (general linear model) SAS-2009. The quality and recovery of pulp and seed were tested to establish the performance of the machine for cold pulping. Greater pulp rate (483.71 g/min; 90 % pulp approx.), 8 % seed and 2 % peel were obtained in case of red ripe tomatoes because of their lower rupture strength than the ripe one’s. Greater rotational speed and larger diameter of rollers resulted in more pulp recovery while roller clearance played an inverse role, yielding less pulp recovery in case of larger clearance. Higher pulp production was achieved by serrated rollers rather than that with flat or plain rollers.