Different soups – different soup making equipment

Soups consist of various vegetables- potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, mushrooms, carrots and sometimes even dairy – all of which require different steps. In order to make soup, all ingredients must be properly cleaned, peeled, chopped and sliced into smaller pieces for optimal food processing.

As different vegetables are used and different soup recipes are formulated, changes must be made in the soup production line to include different equipment for pre-treating the vegetables. Potatoes and carrots must be peeled, while tomatoes are blanched to remove their bitter flavonols-rich skins.
After the ingredients are prepared, manufacturers can use different cooking techniques and soup making equipment like blanchers, steamers, stockpots immersion blenders and slow cookers, among others.

How does thermal processing affect vegetables?

Vegetables must undergo an industrial thermal process before being consumed. Heat treatment definitely brings benefits such as increased protective compounds, but it can also cause color degradation and losses of nutritional and soluble compounds (sugars and soluble fibers). Whether these conditions occur or not depends both on the characteristics of the vegetable to be processed such as enzymes or oxygen concentration and on the severity of the heat treatment.

For example, it has been determined that steaming reduces the loss of fat-soluble nutrients better than boiling. Instead, a study conducted by the Institute of Nutrition at Mahidol University in Thailand showed low losses in the vegetable’s β-carotene content when blanching, only 7-11%, while steaming, frying and boiling showed greater losses, 15, 18 and 43%.

To pasteurize or to sterilize?

If the soup’s pH is in the acid range, pasteurization is recommended. Different temperatures for pasteurization are required to complement the pH range, for example if the pH range is between 3.4 and 4.0, the recommended temperature is 85°C. If it falls between 4.3 and 4.5, the recommended temperature for pasteurization is 99°C.

Soup in cans, pouches and trays