Small Scale Production of Vegetable Sauce
Vijay Kumar Shah
shahvk55@gmail.com
Mobile +91
99353 60033
WhatsApp +91 98397 84033
Introduction: Sauce manufacturers never had
it so good. There is a boom in fast food
market and on every street corner all over India, big or small towns we find
fast food cart and boys, girls and families eating all sort of
stuff. Most of these serving Chinese,
Egg roll, pizza etc. are using lot of sauce.
To cater them in most of towns small sauce manufacturer have mushroomed.
Sauce and Chutney are used for making our
food tastier since time immemorial. In our country we have a number of sauce,
which are seasonal and other which goes with a particular dish. They are mostly
made at home and consumed fresh. Many sauce we have adopted from western
cuisine. There are many sauces now that
are manufactured and preserved by factories.
- Tomato sauce/ketchup: This is
amongst the first and still most popular sauce that is available in
practically every grocery shop. It goes well with many Indian and western
dishes.
- Vegetable sauce: Although we do not
like the idea, but most of the sauce we eat in fast food joints and
wayside restaurants are vegetable sauce, made of carrot, pumpkin etc. They
look and taste very similar to Tomato sauce, but are much economical.
- Green Chilly sauce: This was
introduced mainly for Chinese dishes and initially manufactured by Chinese
located at Calcutta and Igatpuri. But now many factories manufacture it
and modified its recipe to suit more to our dishes. It is now used with
many Indian dishes too, and gaining fast popularity.
- Soya Sauce: This is dark colored
and very salty. It is not very popular with Indian dishes. However it is
must in soups and Chinese preparations
- Besides there are many other sauce continental and exotic like Mustard
sauce etc. that has a limited application and uses. There is a demand
for Indian sauces like Coriander, Pudina, tamarind etc. but
there is no product in market. All
season Foods, once tried these but the company itself did not survive due
to management problems.
In this article we would discuss Vegetable
sauce in detail, as these are most popular with small manufacturers.
Vegetable sauce has gained popularity very
fast. The main credit goes to fast food restaurants mushrooming everywhere.
They should have used tomato ketchup but as it is costlier product, imitation
ketchup has come in market prepared with vegetables. They sometimes have from
nil to 25% tomatoes too. However they look like tomato ketchup and taste is
also not bad. To avoid breaking law, they often have fancy names like
Continental sauce, Chef’s choice, French sauce etc. The origin of these names is probably
Contadina of Maggie.
The great improvement in quality of these
sauces is, widespread and common use of Hydrocolloids and thickeners to control
water separation in sauce, which was practically not known or used in our
country before Maggie came in this field. Besides use of spice oleoresins and
other additives have helped in standardizing and improving the quality of
sauce. There is definitely much
improvement in today’s Continental delight over yesterdays Kaddoo sauce.
Food laws:
Following acts covers sauce:
Fruit
products Order (F.P.O.)
Prevention
of Food Adulteration Act.
Packaging
Commodities Act.
It is mandatory to obtain a license under
F.P.O. before commencing production.
Food Laws:
F.P.O. 1955
Part XIII (A)
Specifications
for Sauce other than Soya Bean Sauce and Tomato Sauce
Product: Sauce
Kind And Variety: Any suitable kind and variety of fruit and vegetable.
Special Characteristics:
Mould Count: Not in excess of 10% of the field examined.
Yeast and Spores: Not in excess of 125 per 1/60 c.m.m.
Bacteria: Not
in excess of 100 millions per c.c.
Minimum % of acidity as acetic acid: 1.2%
Minimum Brix 15%
General
Characteristics:
The product
shall be derived from wholesome fruits and vegetables that shall be practically
free from insect or fungal attack or blemishes affecting the quality of
fruits*.
The only substances
that may be added are fruit, vegetable pulp, juice, dried fruit.
sugar, jaggery,
spices, salt, vinegar, citric acid, acetic acid, malic acid,
onion, garlic,
flavoring materials,
permitted colors
other than red or any shade of red color,
Preservatives.
– Benzoic Acid 750 ppm
The finished
product shall have good flavor and shall be free from burnt or other
objectionable flavor.
It shall be of
good keeping quality and shall show no sign of fermentation when incubated at
28 – 30 C and 37 C.
* The percentage
of the various fruits and vegetables used in the sauce shall be declared on the
label and the label shall not bear any picture of Tomatoes.
PFA Act A.16.12
–
SAUCE shall be the product derived from any
suitable kind and variety of fruit and vegetable, which are wholesome and which
shall be practically free from insect and or fungal attack or blemishes
affecting the quality of the fruit or vegetable, their pulp, juice, dried
fruit, sugar spices, salt vinegar, acetic acid, citric acid, malic acid onion,
garlic, flavoring materials and permitted preservatives. It shall not contain any coal tar dye.
The minimum total soluble solids (Brix)
shall not be less than 15%. The total
acidity in terms of acetic acid shall not be less than 1.0%.
It may also contain permitted emulsifying
and stabilizing agent as prescribed in Rule 61-C. It may also contain Fumaric
acid ISI grade to the extent of 0.3% by weight.
Rule 61-C: The following emulsifying and
stabilizing agents may be added to fruit products:
1.
Pectin, 2. Sodium Alginate 3.
Calcium Alginate 4. Alginic acid 5. Propylene Glycol Alginate.
2.
Preservatives: Benzoic Acid 750
ppm
Raw materials:
The sauce consists of basically following
ingredients:
- Fruit and Vegetable pulp
- Thickener
- Color
- Spice
- Sugar
- Acid
- Salt
- Preservatives.
Fruits and Vegetables: Any fruit /vegetable
giving thick pulp, rich in fiber, starch and pectin will do. It should be preferably bland in color,
flavor and taste, so that it can easily take up the spicy taste of sauce. As
this is an economic product it should be available at low price. Again the recipe may change according to
availability of fruit/vegetable, otherwise the cost of storage and inventory
carrying will be an unnecessary burden over the economy of sauce. This is major ingredient of sauce is normally
over 100%, as it is concentrated. Some of the commonly used fruits and
vegetables are:
Pumpkin: An excellent material for sauce. It is a major component of all
vegetable sauce and often used alone without any other fruit/vegetable.
It should be
fully mature and of deep yellow /Orange color. Yields thick pulp. Starchy
fruit. Bland taste. Green immature fruits are not good and they always cause
water separation. Available for a long period almost from June to February or
even later. It is economic also. Average cost is Rs. 2/- per kilo.
Carrot: Again very good for sauce. It can also be used solely for sauce
making. Usually it is available from January to May a period in which ripe
pumpkin becomes scarce. It is also available at around Rs. 2/kilo and yields
thick pulp. Rich with pectin. It is reddish so gives good color to sauce.
Carrots are available in two types – Red and Yellow. Both are equally good for sauce.
Raw Papaya: A
fruit with rich thick pulp. It can be used blended with other fruits. Apple, Amada, Pear, Potato virtually any
other fruit which yields rich thick pulp of not too strong flavor can be used.
However these are to be blended with Carrot/Pumpkin pulp and does not make good
sauce if used alone.
Tomato – Still nothing to beat Tomato as sauce base. Tomato puree if used say 25% makes a major
difference in taste and flavor but often manufactures do not add any tomato for
economic reason. Tomato although cheap in season, is costly for two reasons
a)
It is available only for short
period in north India at economical rate
b)
It is watery fruit, so requires
concentration, increasing cost and fuel.
Thickeners:
A good sauce must have good pourability ,
cling and mouthfeel. It must have high
viscosity at rest, that is when in bottle, must thin sufficiently when pressure
is applied as while pouring from bottle, recover viscosity quickly when poured
in plate that is it should again become thick in plate and should not flow like
water. It should thin again in mouth to
avoid a slimy or gummy mouthfeel. In short it should look thick but easily
flow.
Water separation in sauce bottle at the
top, bottom or in the middle is also commonly seen on shelf.
The formulation of sauce with proper types
of fruit vegetables, proper concentration and proper boiling is sufficient to
take care of all this. But to economize
and make the product competitive often some short cuts are adopted. Then comes the roll of thickeners.
Thickeners serve two purposes:
1.
It can thicken the excess
water, so less water is to be evaporated and boiling period is reduced. It
helps in two ways. One it means saving on cost of fuel. Second it means lot is
ready early and more lots in one day can be produced, that way one get more
output, saving in overhead cost and labor cost.
2.
It can permit partial
replacement of solids without a significant change in viscosity or apparent
quality. It means one can use less pulp
or sugar without affecting the viscosity and mouthfeel. Again a major cost saving.
Thickeners used in sauce are:
1.
Hydrocolloids – seed gums (Guar
gum), sea weed gums (Alginates), plant extracts (Pectin), or bacterial gums
(Xanthan gum), Exudates (Gum acacia). etc.
2.
Starch - viz corn starch, potato starch, Maida etc.
Usually a combination of various gums is
used to get desired properties and economy. Common are:
Starches:
Corn Starch, maida or Potato starch. – Starch in common are very good
thickeners. These on heating gelatinize
and bind water. A 3% solution of starch becomes jell. But the problem it hydrolyzes rapidly
particularly in presence of acid which are always present in sauce. So its effect is short term, say for a month
or so. These are added in sauce that are
sold locally and consumed within short period after manufacturing. It is also used in combination with
hydrocolloids that are more stable.
Cornstarch is most common, economic and
easily available. Wheat flour (Maida) is
economical but not as good as corn. Potato is costlier and is used mainly in
Green chillie sauce. Flow property is also not very smooth. Main advantage is
economy.
Hydrocolloids – Commonly known as gums.
Guar gum –It is most economical and always
present in most of proprietary thickeners available in market. It gives a bad
taste – gumming on tongue, tar, foam on boiling top like scum. It has a gummy
mouthfeel and shows stringiness. When a food is dipped into sauce and lifted to
mouth, the sauce should cling to the food only.
Instead it shows as a long string
hanging from the food.
Alginates – these bind water without the
problems of guar gum.
Proprietary Thickeners – Many thickeners
are available in the market that is a blend of several chemicals and gives a
balanced property to sauce. These should
be tried and evaluated for cost and quality.
Color:
This is major problem with small sauce
manufacturers.
Actually no coaltar dye is permitted. Although F.P.O. permits use of coaltar dye
other than red, but P.F.A. permits no dye.
It is because vegetable sauce
should not imitate tomato sauce. And public should not get cheated. They
should not be led to buy vegetable sauce, thinking that is tomato sauce.
However all manufacturers are coloring
their sauce red, and make it look alike tomato ketchup. Now there are many ways of doing it.
- Increase the quantity of natural red vegetables like Red
carrot, Beat root and part tomato. But it is usually insufficient.
- Use Natural colors like Oleoresin paprika Water soluble,
usually of 40000 CU strength. Beetroot dye – beatanin is also
recommended. But these are costly
products, and quantity required is also more. Usually it costs Rs. 3 to 4 to color 1
kilo of sauce. The sauce which is
sold @ Rs. 20 or 24/- per 1200 gms bottle cannot afford it. Only sauce being
sold say @ Rs. 30/- per 1200 gms can afford it.
These colors are
good and stable.
- Synthetic Coal tar dye – At first let it be clear that law does
not permit it, but almost all sauce manufacturers at local level is using
it. The tomato color consists of Red, Blue and yellow colors. Rather all
colors are made of these 3 basic colors.
Predominant is red. But it does require a touch of Black/brown to
get proper shade.
a)
Red – Available colors are
Caramoisin, Ponceau and Erythrosin.
Although Amaranth is also used as it gives better shade for sauce. Out
of these only Erythrosin is stable against Acetic Acid. All other colors fade in acetic acid media
within a month or less.
b)
Brown shade is obtained by
Chocolate brown or caramel. Again Chocolate brown – a coal tar dye fades and is
not permitted. Caramel does not fade,
and law does not object being a natural dye.
So it is to recommend
Caramel is easily available on all shops
selling food ingredients. It is a sticky
brownish black liquid. It can be manufactured at factory also by burning sugar.
Spices:
The sauce should taste spicy and pungent.
Most commonly used spices are as bellow. There are many ways of adding it.
Onion – most common, Can be added as fresh
or as dehydrated powder.
Garlic – Again a common spice. Can be added
as fresh or as dehydrated powder or
Oleoresin.
Ginger – Used by few. Is added as fresh
green ginger, dehydrated green ginger powder,
Sounth
(Dried ginger powder), oleoresin.
Red Chillie – Is added as dry powder or as
paste. Oleoresin Capsicum water soluble is also used.
Chillie
should be red and mild hot viz. Beadgi, kashmiri or chapata variety.
Seed Spices: viz. Corriander, Cumin etc.
are used as fine powder or soluble extracts.
Garam Masala: Viz Cinnamon, clove, Black
pepper, cardamom, Mace, Nutmeg etc. are used as powder or spice extracts. If
powder is used care should be taken that it is tannin free. In the past, tannin from spice was one of the
main reasons for Black neck in ketchup bottle. Particularly Clove head is a
very rich source of tannin.
Clove is most commonly used in sauce.
Tamarind pulp is also added to give its
taste and flavor. It does give sauce a distinct taste. And even big firms like
Kissan have tried to introduce tomato tamarind blend sauce.
Fresh spices are truer. While dehydrated
spices has lost part of volatile fractions. The spice oil has more of
volatiles, while oleoresins have more of solvent extractable part. Thus these
have not as balanced flavor as fresh spice.
Advantage of using spice extracts is
convenience. Standard strength. The
undesirable part of spices like black specks, tannin etc. is avoided. The good
riddance from early common black neck of ketchup bottle, which had to be hidden
by a neck label, could be possible only by clove oleoresins. Fresh spices
requires long period of extraction in boiling sauce, which results in loss of
part volatile flavors. These factors have led to use of processed spices
common.
Probably best combination will be to use
fresh green spices. Their volatiles can be added in the end of boiling to
compensate for its loss. Seed spices can be used as powder or as spice
extracts. However garam masala often contains tannin so it is safe to use their
oleoresins only.
Sugar:
It is main sweetener. It is measured by
Brix.
Sugar should be free from dirt and other
insoluble matters. Sand, rope etc. are quite common. It should yield a light color syrup. It
should be free from black specks.
It is costliest part of recipe. The
alternatives are -
Use cheaper sugar. Here it may affect the
brightness of the product, due to impurities present in it.
Khandasari often contains sulphur that may
bleach the color of sauce on storage.
Artificial sweeteners are another
alternative using which sugar can be reduced. Law does not permit it. Sodium Saccharine is cheapest and easily
available. Other artificial sweeteners like Aspertame and Accesulfame Potassium
are costly and available only in big towns. If these are used, thickeners are
to be increased to balance viscosity.
Sauce is sold in a very competitive
market. Most small manufacturers market
it only on low cost basis. One way of
reducing cost is to replace part of the sugar by saccharine which is not
allowed by law but will balance sweetness.
Acid:
Preferred acid is Acetic acid. It is good
preservative as well as its taste balances well with sauce. Normally final acidity in sauce is 1 to 1.5%
weight by volume depending upon the brix. Higher brix will require higher acid
and salt to balance the taste.
Salt:
Preferably only refined salt should be
used. 2.5 – 3.5% salt depending on sweetness is O.K. Its cost is low so any
economy in it is not worth. Impure salt may mar the brightness of sauce due to
impurities like dirt and metals.
Preservatives:
Sodium benzoate is the normal preservative.
The only other preservative permitted is Sulphur di oxide, but it will bleach
the color, so never used. If some
sulphur di oxide is used in preservation of pulp, it will evaporate during
boiling of sauce.
A properly made sauce does not require any
preservative. Many countries do not permit preservatives in sauce. Preservatives
are used in our country for two reasons – to take care of any processing
defects and to take care of poor hygienic condition prevalent in our food
processing units. It also prevents sauce from fermenting once the bottle is
opened and used during long period.
Recipe:
Bellow is a typical recipe for guideline
only. A recipe will depend on many factors, viz. Raw materials available, cost
desired etc.
Recipe 1.
|
Particular
|
Rate
@/kilo
|
Quantity
Kilo
|
Cost
Rs.
|
Total cost
Rs.
|
%
of sauce
|
|
|
Quantity
|
Cost
|
|||||
|
Fruits
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pumpkin Pulp
|
2.00
|
35
|
70.00
|
|
|
|
|
Tomato Puree of 7 Brix
|
6.00
|
5
|
30.00
|
100.00
|
89
|
25.51
|
|
Thickeners
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
K2 of Davars
|
125.00
|
0.5
|
62.50
|
|
|
|
|
Corn Starch
|
20.00
|
0.25
|
5.00
|
67.50
|
1.66
|
17.22
|
|
Flavors
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Red Chillie powder
|
70.00
|
0.1
|
7.00
|
|
|
|
|
Garlic Powder
|
70.00
|
0.02
|
1.40
|
|
|
|
|
Onion Powder
|
70.00
|
0.08
|
5.60
|
|
|
|
|
Spice oil/oleoresins
|
880.00
|
0.01
|
8.80
|
22.80
|
0.46
|
5.8
|
|
Colors
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Erythorisin
|
1800.00
|
2.5 gms
|
4.50
|
|
|
|
|
Liquid Caramel
|
34
|
100 ml
|
3.40
|
|
|
|
|
Chocolate Brown
|
650.00
|
4 gms
|
2.60
|
10.50
|
0.24
|
2.68
|
|
Sugar
|
16.50
|
10
|
165
|
165
|
22.22
|
42.01
|
|
Miscellaneous
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Salt
|
3.50
|
1
|
3.50
|
|
|
|
|
Sodium Benzoate
|
70
|
45 gms
|
3.15
|
|
|
|
|
Acetic acid
|
39
|
500 ml
|
19.50
|
26.15
|
3.55
|
6.67
|
|
Total
|
|
|
|
391.95
|
|
|
Yield 38
– 40 bottles x 1.2 kilo = 45 kilo = Rs. 10/bottle of 1.2 kg
Brix 35 – 37 Acidity 1.2%
W/V Salt 2.5%
Let us examine this recipe:
Pulp: Any
pulp combination like carrot, pumpkin etc. can be used. Raw papaya, apple, pear also can be used upto
25% of the total pulp. Beetroot will give redness.
Tomato is costly, but it adds to taste and
flavor.
While calculating cost of pulp processing
cost is not considered, only Cost of fruit/vegetable is taken. Processing cost
will be taken as whole.
Quantity of pulp can be increased decreased
in the inverse proportion of thickeners. That means pulp can be reduced by
increasing thickeners and vice versa.
Pulp quantity may vary from 80 % to 250%
depending upon fruit and consistency desired. Thin fruits like tomato require
lot of concentration.
Pulp although is major ingredient costs only
25% of total cost.
Thickeners:
Cornstarch can be only thickener in sauce with low shelf life desired. While
sauce with long shelf life should have only hydrocolloids as thickener. Cost is a factor again. Guar gum is cheap,
while alginate based thickeners cost more.
Quantity of thickeners again depends on
type; pulp used and desired shelf life.
For starch it will be 0.5% to 2% of sauce
Hydrocolloids may be 0.1% to 1% of sauce.
Propriety thickeners normally recommend the
dose.
Color – this
is the main draw back of the recipe. It is not permitted.
A combination that can be tried is (for 100
kilo sauce)
5 gms Erythrosin
250
ml Liquid
Caramel
2 gms Carmoisin
Of
course exact quantities will be determined by trials, and will depend upon the
fruits/vegetables used and the shade desired.
This can be taken as guideline and then improved upon.
Use of Natural pigments – like Paprika,
betanin and Caramel is costly but allowed by law.
It will require approximately 150 ml of
Oleoresin Paprika Water soluble 40000 cu. In above recipe it will add to the
cost
Cost
of paprika 150 ml Rs. 150.00
Less
cost of Synthetic dye Rs. 7.10
Additional
cost Rs. 142.90 or Rs. 3.17/ kilo
=
Rs. 3.81/1200 gms bottle
This is affordable only if the user is
prepared to pay this extra amount.
Spices:
Red chillie is must.
Onion, garlic is common.
Green ginger and other spices are optional,
but added to good quality sauce.
Again choice is to add them as spice, as
dehydrated powders or liquid extracts.
This is a matter of choice, cost and
convenience.
Here we have added Green spices like Onion
and garlic as dehydrated powder, Red chillie as powder, and a blend of several
spices as extracts – that is T.K.Spice. It consists of Extracts of cumin,
coriander, clove, cinnamon, Green ginger, Capsicum and garlic.
However other combinations as per
convenience and taste can be used.
I have found that spice is first victim if
reduction in sauce cost is being worked out. However on spice the taste of
sauce depends and it hardly costs Rs. 1/bottle in above recipe.
Sugar
It
is the costliest part of recipe. In above recipe it is 42% of cost.
The alternatives to reduce cost here is to
reduce the quantity of sugar. Law requires only 15 Brix so we can reduce sugar
to even say 5 kilo. Saving 21% in cost i.e. say Rs. 2 per bottle. Any reduction
in sugar should follow in reduction of salt and acid too to balance the taste.
Although law requires minimum brix of 15
only, but good vegetable sauce is having brix as high as 40. Over 20 to 30 are quite common.
Addition of nearly 25 kilo of sugar / 100
kilo sauce is sufficient to give 40 Brix, as rest of brix is provided by other
solids like salt, pulp etc. For lower brix 14 to 20 kilo sugar will do.
Acetic Acid
– of course helps in preservation besides balances the sweet taste. Its
quantity will vary depending upon acidity of pulp. So sauce should be analyzed
and sufficient quantity of acid is added to meet the final specifications. Its
cost is again not much.
Salt: It
often contains dirt and metallic impurities that affect the brightness of the
product. Cost of salt is hardly 1% of product cost so here economizing is not
worth.
Economic Sauce Recipe:
Recipe 2
An alternative economic recipe can be
worked out:
|
Particulars
|
Rate
@/kg
|
Quantity
Kilo
|
Cost
Rs.
|
Total Cost
Rs.
|
Recipe 1
Cost
|
|
Pumpkin
|
2/-
|
45
|
90
|
90
|
100.00
|
|
Thickeners
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
K2 of Davar
|
125/-
|
130 gms
|
16.25
|
|
|
|
Guar Gum
|
110/-
|
130 gms
|
14.30
|
30.55
|
67.50
|
|
Flavors
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Red Chillie
|
40/-
|
100 gms
|
4.0
|
|
|
|
Garlic Powder
|
70/-
|
40 gms
|
2.80
|
|
|
|
Onion powder
|
70/-
|
40 gms
|
2.80
|
|
|
|
Garam masala
|
150/-
|
40 gms
|
6.00
|
15.60
|
22.80
|
|
Colors
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Erythorisin
|
1800.00
|
2.5 gms
|
4.50
|
|
|
|
Liquid Caramel
|
34
|
100 ml
|
3.40
|
|
|
|
Chocolate Brown
|
650.00
|
4 gms
|
2.60
|
10.50
|
10.50
|
|
Sugar
|
16.50
|
6
|
99
|
99
|
165.00
|
|
Miscellaneous
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Salt
|
2.00
|
1
|
2.00
|
|
|
|
Sodium Benzoate
|
45
|
45 gms
|
2.00
|
|
|
|
Acetic acid
|
39
|
500 ml
|
19.50
|
23.50
|
26.15
|
|
Total
|
|
|
|
269.10
|
391.25
|
To economies:
Tomato pulp is not added.
Thickener – Guar gum is more powerful and
cheaper.
Garlic powder is stronger than onion, so
its quantity is increased and onion is less, resulting in overall reduction.
Garam masala powder is used instead of
oleoresins. It is economic
Sugar is reduced much. Saving considerably
in cost. Final Brix of sauce is 20.
Sodium Benzoate and salt of cheaper type is
used.
Thus cost is lower by RS. 122.15/batch. It
works out to
Yield is again 38 – 40 bottles of 1.2 kilo
= Rs. 6.75 / 1200 gms bottle
i.e.
saving of roughly 3.25/bottle over recipe 1.
A completely illegal recipe:
Recipe 3.
We have been informed that vegetable sauce
is retailed @ Rs. 10/- per beer bottle in certain towns. Of course I have never seen it. It may be
true or not. Its recipe is supposed to be:
Per 100 kilo sauce
3 kilo Corn starch or maida – It will
thicken the sauce. No pulp.
Saccharine instead of sugar
Salt
Acetic acid
Color – used for dying cloth – it will not
fade
Sodium Benzoate
Red chillie powder to give pungency.
This is filled in used beer bottle and sold
to wayside thela, serving burger and other fast food.
One can imagine its cost and quality.
Processing Technique:
Extraction of pulp
Preparation:
Pumpkin: Whole pumpkins are often not
washed if not very dirty. These are cut into big pieces of irregular size say
3” cubes. For ease of operation
sometimes it is thrown hard on cement floor to crack open the fruits and broken
into big chunks. The fruit pieces are then washed.
The carrot should be washed thoroughly as
being a tuber crop there is mud and bacteria, which must be washed off.
Raw Papaya: The stem is removed, fruit cut
into 4 pieces, seed removed and boiled with peel. After softening further
processing is same as for Pumpkin. Other fruits and vegetables are also
suitably washed and cut.
Fruit/Vegetables are cut into big pieces. Washed. Normally no
peeling is done.
Woody stem is mostly removed.
Cooking:
The pieces are heated slowly with minimum water. The vessel is
covered to conserve energy. It should be
kept near boiling point only and not vigorously boiled, as aim is to soften the
fruits and not evaporate water. Within
an hour or so, these are sufficiently soft.
S.S. Pressure cooker or steaming vessel will be ideal. But normally
these are not available in small factories.
The aim is to soften the fruits with minimum addition of water and
minimum fuel. These sauce or low cost products, so fuel cost is to be kept
low. Any extra water added during
softening is to be evaporated later, which requires additional fuel. In steaming or pressure-cooking additional
water is not required. Some manufacturers drain out water after fruit are
cooked to concentrate it. But this way
solid is also leached out.
The extraction of pulp:
The pieces are then passed through pulper as usual and pulp
extracted.
Depending upon availability of machines the
pulping is carried out
a) Single stage pulping through pulper
using 1/32” sieve
b) Two stage pulping
using first 1/16” sieve then final pulping with 1/32” sieve
c) First passing through fruit mill and
then through pulper
d)
Passing through colloidal mill and then
refining using pulper.
e)
Passing pulp finally through colloidal
mill or high-pressure homogenizer.
The finer the pulp, sauce will be smooth
and less chances of water separation.
Preservation of pulp:
The
pulp extracted is preserved by addition of acid to lower the pH and
preservative.
Usually 1% acetic acid
1000
ppm sodium Benzoate
500
ppm Sodium meta bi sulphite
is sufficient. That means in 100 kilo of
pulp
Add
1 Liter of Acetic Acid
100
gms of Sodium Benzoate
100
gms Sodium Meta bi sulphite.
In the final pulp these are added and the
hot pulp is filled into well-washed and sterilized HDPE carboys.
If pulp is used fresh, then preservation is
not necessary, but often in small units it is more convenient to prepare pulp
one day, stock it and then prepare sauce. This is convenient for many reasons –
In small factories there is not much
space. In the same place the fruits are
handled and also finished sauce is filled.
This is not good. Fruits always have dirt, insect and bacteria. Which might migrate to sauce. So it is better that we do not handle fruits
and sauce in same hall together. If there are separate halls for two operations
well it is good otherwise better prepare pulp one day and sauce other day. This way it requires less labor too.
Storage of Pulp:
The pulp is stored at Room temperature
under shade. It should keep well for
over 6 months. Only change may be in
color or sometimes flavor after that.
Initially for 2 – 3 weeks we should observe
them and if any one is showing sign of fermentation, these should be used for
conversion into sauce. Reboiling and
readdition of preservatives may not be very successful, as the microbial loads
might have increased.
After that these should be observed at say
monthly intervals and if any chance of microbial growth is there, these should
be converted into sauce if spoilage is not much advanced. General microbial growth is Fermentation or
Surface yeast.
Sprinkling a tsp of SMS on surface of pulp
can control surface yeast. However if proper care is taken then spoilage should
not occurre.
Problem:
If the pulp prepared is to be converted
into sauce within a week or so, not many precautions are necessary, but if they
are to be stored for long, there are always chances of fermentation and growth
of surface yeast. The microbial
contamination comes from many sources but two are major sources:
- Pulper – Its brushes are major source of contamination. It requires proper cleaning everyday.
The small factories often neglect it.
It may cause contamination of pulp.
So it is better to boil pulp after passing through pulper.
The other way is
to maintain strict sanitation and wash pulper properly.
Washing of pulper
– After work is over, put water in pulper while it is running. It will clean the sieve and brushes. Then put
in hot water. Remove sieve and wash the pulper and sieve thoroughly scrubbing
it. Leave it dismantled overnight to dry. In the morning assemble it, first run
boiling hot water then put to use.
- HDPE Carboys – Again these are often not properly washed and
may cause contamination. Specially the neck area is not easily
approachable and it remains dirty.
The best is to clean thoroughly inspect and add 100 ml or so of
Sodium Hypo chlorite solution in every carboy and store till used. This will prevent any bacterial
multiplication while storage of empty carboy.
Bleaching powder
is Calcium Hypo chlorite and when used leaves lime deposits behind. Sodium hypo
chlorite is soluble but unstable so it is to be prepared in factory.
Preparation of Sodium Hypo chlorite
Solution
5 kilo Soda
Ash (Sodium Carbonate)
4 kilo Bleaching
Powder
56
Liter Water
Mix all ingredients, using only plastic and
wooden ladles. (No contact with metal).
Fill in a plastic carboy and cap tightly.
Leave overnight. Decant Supernatant liquid. Discard bottom sediment.
Chlorine content : usually between 15000 to 20000 ppm
Caution:
1. This solution is highly active. Avoid
contact with metal. Use only plastic containers, Wooden ladles etc. for
preparation and storage of this solution.
2.Protect body parts while handling it.
Addition of Thickeners:
There are two classes of thickeners:
- Starch – It should be made into slurry in water at room
temperature, and added to final boiling sauce near the end point. Raw starch does not have any thickening
property, only when it is gelatinized in hot water it absorbs water. It
hydrolyzes and looses the thickening power on boiling in acid media. So it
should be always added near the end point. Preparing slurry helps in
avoiding lump formation.
- Hydrocolloids: These require free water to swell and bind. So
it should be always added when free water is available, that is in the
beginning of process. It can be best dissolved in worm water with the help
of high-speed stirrers.
Added to hot,
thick boiling sauce near finishing point will result in lumping and
stringiness, and will not bind water. Hydrocolloids will not disperse or
hydrate effectively when added to a thick, hot sauce. It should be included in
the process at the start to make sure that it is completely dispersed and well
hydrated before other ingredients are added.
However it makes the sauce viscous and it gets scorched at the bottom of
pan. It will require continuous and
vigorous stirring, which may not be very easy when sauce is prepared on
gas/diesel burners.
Addition of Color
Colors should be always added in solution
form. This way one is sure that it is fully dissolved and dispersed in sauce.
Best way is to prepare stock solution of standard strength and measure it as
per lot.
Colors should be added just a couple of
minutes before the end point. It is best to keep a bottle of standard color
sauce in dark in the lab and compare the color of fresh lot with this standard
bottle.
Color does vary from lot to lot due to
color variation of mainly pulp. So best is to first add red then add dark color
to adjust the shade.
Addition of Spices
There are many ways of adding spices:
a)
Earlier the common method was
to cut onion, garlic into fine pieces. Coarsely pound dry spices. Tie loosely
all in a cloth and hang them in the boiling sauce. The hot sauce used to
extract the aroma and soluble matters from the spices. The cloth bag is pressed against the wall of
pan to facilitate this extraction. Red chillie powder is made into a fine
smooth paste on stone and added to boiling sauce. This gives good taste and flavor, but it
requires labor. The quality of spices may vary and that will affect the flavor
of sauce. Some volatiles are lost on
boiling.
Another problem
is that if the bag is torn, the spices will be mixed into sauce and they have
to be removed by pulper, often leaving some dark specks.
b)
Now most common method is to
add dehydrated powder of onion & garlic. Red chillie as powder. The rest of
the spices as oleoresins and spice extracts. This gives same taste, as these
are available in standard strength. As these are added near the end point the
loss of volatiles is negligible. Another plus point is that they do not contain
objectionable part like tannin or dark color of real spice.
However they are
not as authentic as real spice. They have either soluble fraction or volatile
fraction more or less than the ratio in which they occur in natural materials.
These are often costlier also.
c)
Another method is followed. The
onion, garlic and green ginger is prepared and crushed and added to boiling
fruit/vegetable before extraction of pulp. Thus they are extracted along with
pulp and the fibers are screened off during pulping. Being light in color they
do not adversely affect color of pulp.
Red chillie powder
is added directly to the boiling sauce.
Garam masala is
also made into fine powder and added directly to boiling sauce.
d)
A combination of these methods
may be adopted where some spices are added directly and others as powders or
extracts.
Addition of Sugar:
A part of sugar is used for blending into
thickeners. Sugar is added in the middle of sauce boiling. It should be added
in hot sauce with continuous stirring and gradually. Otherwise it may settle in
bottom and char. Prolonged heating of sugar may caramelize it and may affect
the color and brilliancy of sauce. In
very high quality sauce, to remove impurities, it is made into thick syrup,
filtered through muslin / filter press and then added to sauce.
Addition of Acid:
Acetic acid is the acid of choice. It is
volatile, so always added in the end.
Boiling for a couple of minutes, after its addition help in its better
dispersion into sauce.
Acidity of sauce varies, as the natural
acidity of pulp may vary. So it is always safe to add less acid, analyze, and
add additional acid to bring upto standard.
Addition of Salt:
Salt can be added in the middle of
boiling. Dry ingredients can be blended
with it for better dispersion.
Addition of Preservative:
This should also be added in solution
form. It can be made into stock solution
and measured out for each lot. It helps in ensuring its complete dissolution
and dispersion. It is added near the end
point. Do not add it together with acid.
It may form Benzoic acid and precipitate. So best is to add it, stir well, and
then add acid.
End Point:
It is always brix. Other parameters like
acidity and salt, viscosity (Flow) and taste, presence of foreign matter should
be checked.
Ideal way to make sauce:
- Calculate the weight of all the material added in the lot
including water added to dissolve various ingredients.
- Deduct it from the weight of final sauce when it is ready. The difference is water to be
evaporated.
- Water is mainly in pulp. So boil pulp and reduce its weight so
that in the batch only a few liters water is excess.
- Dissolve thickeners into hot water at 60 – 80 C with high-speed
stirrer. 10% solution can be made. However it will vary depending upon
constituents of thickeners. Continue mixing for at least 10 – 15 minutes
till a homogeneous solution is formed.
- Add the pulp, sugar, salt and other non volatile ingredients
and continue stirring. After all is dissolved, check the brix that should
be 1 or 2 degree lower than final desired brix.
The concentration
of various ingredients should be such that it is achieved.
- Put into pan and start heating to boiling. Add acid, color,
preservative. Boil to final brix, stop heat. It should be boiled minimum,
say a couple of minutes.
- Check and adjust as per standards.
- Add spice extracts, mix well and fill.
Filling
Sauce is filled
normally into
Glass bottles
Carboys
As mainly
caterers and restaurants use this type of sauce, bigger packing like 1200 gms
bottle and 5 liter carboys are more common.
Bottling: This sauce is sold at economic
rates so mainly used bottles are filled.
The bottles should be washed properly.
These are used bottles so there will always be old sauce, dirt and bacteria.
Old labels will also be on the bottle.
The bottles should be soaked for a couple
of hours or so. Care should be taken that soaking water goes inside the bottle
also. Air in the bottle resists water entering into and bottle is to be tilted
properly so that air comes out and water enters into. Normally labor neglects
this.
Some soap solution should be used in
soaking water. Nirma powder is also good enough as it is alkaline.
The outside label should be scrubbed off
with stiff brush, or a piece of flat iron. Then the bottles should be brushed
preferably with motorized brushes. They should be then rinsed preferably
through jet rinser, with fresh water. If rinsing water is chlorinated all the best. The bottles should be kept inverted in
perforated plastic crates till used.
Before filling they should be inspected for
foreign matter against light.
If bottles are new, they need not be soaked
and brushed. These are simply dipped in the water and inverted to drip dry. Or
they can be cleaned on jet rinser.
Bottles need not be dried before filling.
Sauce should be at around 90 to 95 C before filling. It will give proper headspace and vacuum.
These should be crown corked immediately.
The temperature at the time of crowning should be 85 to 90 C. If
temperature of sauce goes down, better add more hot sauce to raise the
temperature, or again heat it.
Sauce is filled upto brim. Shrinking of sauce when it is cooled forms
the headspace we see in sauce bottle. If fillers are not able to fill upto
brim, another labor tops the sauce and makes it brimful. While filling care should be taken that the
neck of bottle is not soiled. The sauce between crown cork and outside neck
becomes blackish and looks ugly, after bottle is opened.
Sauce is filled manually with the help of
mugs and funnel. Fillers are available which work on gravity or vacuum. While
buying fillers, it should be checked. Often
these are designed for thinner products like squashes and juices. Sauce is a
viscous product and it requires high vacuum to fill it. Besides the pipe should
be resistant to boiling temperature.
After crowning filled bottles should be
washed immediately. There is some sauce outside bottle that is easily washed
while hot. Afterwards it dries off and makes bottle sticky.
Bottles are normally air cooled. These should be spread in single layer or
stacked in perforated plastic crates to cool. If filled into closed cartons and
stacked, they turn dark, what is known as stake burning. It is due to bottles in the center of stake
taking long time in cooling.
Bottles are labeled. Proper statutory information should be
printed / stamped on label.
Besides crown cork a plastic screw cap is
also fixed. Consumer uses it after the bottle is opened. They are cartooned and
are ready for dispatch.
Remark: We
have observed that sometime after the bottle is opened and half material is
consumed, the remaining sauce tastes sour.
I have no answer for it, and would like to know the answer. It happens
in only few bottles of some lot.
Filling in 5 liter jerry cans:
Narrow mouth jerry cans are used. 5 Liter
is common size. It should be consumed within a week or so after opening. So it should be always supplied to big
users. There are always chances of sauce
getting contaminated, and start fermenting after the jar is half empty.
These are factory fresh jars and
clean. However they should be inspected
inside and filled at around 60 C. Higher temperature might soften the plastic.
One way is to hold jar in water, during filling, so that plastic of jar does
not get hot. Filled jars should be immediately cooled, by immersing them into
water upto neck.
Quality Control:
In sauce following parameters are important
- Brix – by refrectometer
- Acidity – by titration
- Salt – titration
- Flow - Consistency
- Color
- Smoothness
- Foreign matter
- Taste and flavor
Machines:
A) For a small unit producing upto 250 kilo
/day
- Washing of fruits in tanks
- L.P.G. gas/Diesel Bhatti for cooking
- Aluminum Bhigona of various sizes
- Balance – platform 100 kilo + counter for chemicals
- Baby Pulper operating on 1 H.P. motor.
- Bottle washing with hand brushes.
- Mugs and funnel for filling
- Hand coding machine
- Carton strapping machine
However in big units may have lot of
machines
- Fruit receiving
- Plastic crates
- Balances – platform
- Inspection conveyors
- Fruit preparation
- Cutting knives and tables/conveyors
- Fruit washer – with final rinsing with chlorinated water
- Inspection conveyor with lights
- Pulp extraction
- Fruit mills – to precrush fruits
- Pulper – These are available in many sizes. Bigger pulpers say
those operating on 3 H.P. or more are efficient. They extract more and
thick pulp.
- Micro pulverizer – these will fine grind the pulp and should
be used after pulping
- Manufacturing
- Blending – A high speed stirrer capable of blending say 100 L
lot and one to blend thickeners of smaller capacity.
- Boiling – Boiler and steam jacketed kettle.
- High pressure homogenizer for finishing.
- Pumps for transferring
sauce.
- Filling
- Bottle washing – Mechanized brushes for old bottles. Hot
caustic soda washing is ideal but sauce manufacturers cannot afford it.
- Empty bottle inspection table/conveyor with light.
- Bottle filler – gravity or Vacuum – Vacuum filler should have
powerful vacuum pump as sauce are thick product and its contact pipes
should be of heat resistant.
- Crown corking machine
- Filled bottle washing – spray
- Crates to store filled bottles.
- Packing
- Label coding machines – motorized.
- Bottle packing conveyor
- Filled bottle inspection light
- Labeling unit – Which may include a label gumming machine and
a conveyor or an automatic labeling machine.
- Carton marker
- Pasting of cartons manually
- Strapping machine
- Trolleys to shift goods to stores.
The possibility of mechanization in sauce
unit is much, and it depends on scale of production and desire of entrepreneur,
what machines to buy.
Conclusion: Vegetable sauce was in early
days were frowned upon as imitation ketchup, but now it is produced in huge
quantity in our country. Of course only
cottage and small manufacturers produce it.
There is nothing wrong with the product and if properly made this is a
good product by cost conscious section of market.
5.4.12
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