Trending news on some sighted Facebook pages is a heated debate about the fact that “tomato paste is made only with flour and contains sugar.” This statement was followed by a call on people to use natural tomatoes for their meals and avoid eating coloured flour paste mixed with sugar.
The conversation was started by a pharmacist who wrote, “The day I discovered that tomato paste was made with flour and it also contains sugar, my entire life came crashing down. I was like, what?.
Our research showed that concentrated tomato solids (no seeds or skin), sometimes with added sweetener (high fructose corn syrup), were common. An academic paper further proved that tomato paste is an intermediate product that commonly uses fillers in the form of cornstarch.In many instances, sugar is added to the tomato paste as well. Tomatoes are acidic, and the addition of sugar counteracts that. Therefore, the purpose of adding a pinch of sugar to processed tomato paste is to balance its acidity.
It is important to note that each brand of tomato paste has its own percentage of flour and sugar it adds to the paste for production. While others have up to 30% natural tomato paste, others add up to 40%. This means that the remaining 70 or 60% are likely to be a combination of other materials, including flour and sugar. Often than not, the tomato concentrate ranges between 16 and 36%.
Yes, the tomato paste you are using surely contains flour and sugar for good reasons. Sugar cuts the acidity of the tomatoes and creates an overall more balanced sauce. The exact acid levels in tomatoes can vary quite a bit depending on whether they’re fresh or canned, the tomato variety, and the time of year.
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