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PASSATA: ONLY ITALIAN WILL DO
Rome (Ign) - Tomato passata, one of the best-selling and most famous Italian products in the world, has achieved new success on international markets thanks to a directive of the European Commission that on 15 June defined the guidelines for its production: product traceability, guarantee of composition, provenance of the raw materials. Producers are now obliged to put all this information on the label. Real passata is thus now officially produced by pressing fresh tomato, making it impossible to also use this name for products based on concentrated tomato purée. "Only Italian tomato", or "Italian tomato passata" or alternatively, "Product obtained from fresh tomato farmed in... ": these are the wordings on the labels that certify the genuineness of the product, thanks to the obligation to specify the provenance of the raw material.
It is no coincidence that Italy is the world number two for tomato passata and peeled tomatoes, both as producer and consumer, behind the USA. The production of tomatoes in Italy in fact exceeds 4,000,000 tonnes, with 60,000 ha of farms. The process of conservation begins straight after picking and must respect numerous rules to ensure quality: red fruit, uniform shape and size, high pulp content and a low number of seeds. The characteristics are further defined by the type of transformation that the tomato undergoes: peeled, purée, pulp or chopped, juice, passata, flakes. Processing begins with washing in tanks; the tomatoes are then heated to a temperature of 90° in order to detach the skin from the flesh, using mechanical or heat processes, and transferred onto conveyor belts. In modern industrial production lines, sorting is performed by an optical sorter. The product is then submitted to a process of partial concentration. Lastly, the tins are filled with the fruit and juice and then vacuum sealed before pasteurisation.
The sector of vegetable preserves (www.anicav.it) is composed of around 2000 companies in Italy, mainly cottage industries, while those which are fully industrial (with over 10 employees), and which account for the vast majority of production, number 500, and produce business worth over €4 billion, around half which is accounted for by foreign markets. The biggest purchaser of preserves is Europe, which covers around 60% of sales of preserved vegetables and pulses and 88% of fruit juices. The main buyers are Germany, the United Kingdom and France. As far as regards tomato passata, turnover is just over €2 billion: and Italy's position as leading European producer of tomato derivates (55%), becomes that of leading world producer when we talk about peeled tomatoes, a traditional product that companies in the south have been producing and exporting worldwide for well over half a century. Campania is the capital of tomato processing, with over 100 processing companies out of a national total of around 200. The area processes 50% of the national tomato crop, and the sector, which provides 18,000 jobs - guarantees a product of superior quality, appreciated on all the world's markets. Puglia also has important production figures, producing 2.7 million quintals of passata per year, accounting for 35% of Italian production as a whole.
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