Preserving Tomatoes

Three home-processing and preservation techniques

Jars of peeled tomatoes and bottles of pulp for making sauces and other preparations can be used for twelve months, and dried tomatoes for three or twelve months depending on the processing (see the expiry date on the label).

Recommendations

1. Wash your hands before every operation. This rule is particularly important in preparing dried tomatoes.
2. Remove the damaged parts of fresh tomatoes.
3. Wash utensils, equipment and trays after use in clean water.
4. Addition of the preservative, potassium metabisulphite, protects the tomatoes forms bacteria, yeast and moulds. However, this solution cannot prevent the multiplication of germs if the preparation and drying are done in unsanitary conditions.
5. For each finished product jar, bottle, bag) the label must show:
   • The nature of the product (peeled tomatoes, tomato pulp, dried tomatoes)
   • The net weight
   • The origin (name of the group or cooperative)
   • The expiry date

Sterilization time

Processing materials and equipment

• Aluminium or plastic 20-litre buckets
• Plastic 40 litre basin
• Stainless-steel or aluminium 30-litre cooking pots
• Aluminium 25-litre pots
• Half-litre jars and lids
• Half-litre bottles and caps
• Polythene bags and bands to close them
• Labels
• Knives
• Wooden spoons
• Stainless-steel or aluminium skimmers
• Stainless-steel or aluminium ladles
• Stainless-steel or plastic strainers
• Stainless-steel or plastic funnels
• Lemon squeezer
• Small spoons
• Chemical products: potassium metabisulphite

Equipment:

• Improved stove
• Extractor
• Bottle-capper
• Solar dryer

Never use copper utensils, because this metal destroys some of the vitamin C.

Copyright

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Informartion Network on Post-Harvest Operations (INPhO) 1998. All copyright and intellectual property rights reserved. No part of the procedures or programs used for the access to, or the display of, data contained in this database or software may be reproduced, altered, stored on a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Informartion Network on Post-Harvest Operations (INPhO). Applications for such permission, explaining the purpose and extent of reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Information Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. Data contained in this database or software may, however, be used freely provided that the FAO and INPhO be cited as the source. FAO and INPhO decline all responsibility for errors or deficiencies in the database or software or in the documentation accompanying it, for program maintenance and upgrading as well as for any damage that may arise from them. FAO and INPhO also declines any responsibility for updating the data and assumes no responsibility for errors and omissions in the data provided. Users are, however, kindly asked to report any errors or deficiencies in this product to FAO.

See also

• Tomatoes