Tomato paste is a concentrated food product

To prepare a wide variety of dishes, everyone would like to have year-round and in sufficient quantities fresh tomatoes of high quality, but our weather conditions dictate their rules. Therefore, tomato paste has been produced for many years to help the owners.

Despite the fact that it belongs to canned concentrates, its quality is very high. Although in the production process tomatoes are subjected to a certain heat treatment, this product still contains vitamins B1, PP, A, C, B2, E, there are macro elements (sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium, phosphorus) and trace elements (iron, nickel, cobalt). Tomato paste contains proteins, carbohydrates, mono- and disaccharides, organic acids, dry substances. Caloric content of the product is 102 kcal / 100 g.

Tomato paste is a product made from fresh tomatoes. During its preparation, tomatoes are wiped through special screens to a homogeneous (homogeneous) mass, and then concentrated by boiling in special containers. Tomato paste does not contain starch and dyes (E124). Sodium chloride is allowed not more than 1.5%.

Tomato paste has a higher concentration of solids than tomato puree. So, in paste they contain 20-40%, and in puree - 12-20%. Tomato paste is used for cooking first dishes (borsch, soup-kharcho), sauces for second courses and pizza, ketchups and reconstituted juices.

There are a number of manufacturers of this type of product, but tomato paste "Pomidorka" is one of the most popular in Russia. Its main feature is a high concentration of solids (25%). It is believed that the more these substances in the product, the greater the concentration of the raw materials (tomatoes).

Often unscrupulous producers reduce the content of natural raw materials by adding a cheaper starch, which gives the product the necessary consistency. Thus, they significantly reduce the cost of production. Tomato paste of the trade mark "Pomidorka" does not contain artificial additives and dyes.

In our time there is a huge number of different juices, some of which are classified as "restored." Tomato juice, which is one of the most popular, also did not escape this fate. Only a small part of it is produced by classical recipes by directly preserving freshly squeezed and thermally processed juice. Most often, buyers buy a drink that was made by diluting special tomato concentrates with water. The taste and smell of this product is different from the natural juice, as is its composition.

The present juice does not contain water, and the reconstituted water is obtained with water. Tomato paste is not so rich in nutrients and has a slightly changed taste and color compared to fresh juice. Most often, reconstituted drinks are prepared from products purchased in Iran and Turkey. Concentrates are obtained by grinding, straining and boiling tomatoes to the state of the paste. Such concentrates are diluted with water, salt, sugar and starch are added to them. After that, the product is homogenized (a homogeneous mixture is obtained ), sterilized and poured into different packages. This way of obtaining juice is much cheaper than the classical one, but the quality of such a product is lower than that of a natural one.

Tomato juice from tomato paste can be cooked at home if desired, diluting the good pasta with drinking water and adding sugar and salt to taste. It will taste a little different from the juice of direct pressing, but you can drink it without fear for your health.