Contribution to the improvement of a tomato puree dosing machine

Abstract

This article deals with the contribution to the improvement of a tomato puree dosing machine to facilitate the bottling of the puree during the tomato processing. Indeed, tomato processing is a way to reduce losses and extend its shelf life, while preserving its organoleptic characteristics as well as possible. However, we found that the production capacity is low compared to the demand because of the lack of financial means but also because of the laboriousness of the processing. Indeed, after reduction of the tomato in puree, its bottling is the longest and the most exhausting operation of the transformation process. To date, the filling of the jars is done with the manual filling machine developed by the PTAA researchers. But the uniformity of the filling is not respected, since it is done in an approximate way by the operator. To overcome this constraint, the issue of the study and design of a dosing machine for tomato puree was addressed. At the end of our study, we end up with a motorized dosing machine affordable for all small and medium-sized processing units. The results of the study will make it possible to remedy the manual filling, which will lead to increase the output of this transformation and thus indirectly to the valorization of the local varieties of tomato.