The Secret Ingredient Behind Better Tomato Powder Processing

From Field to Free-Flowing Powder: The Secret Ingredient Behind Better Tomato Powder Processing

By Andy Riddick, Director Technical Services & New Business Development, Cabot Corporation

As demand grows for tomato powders in seasonings, soup bases, sauces, ready meals, and functional food ingredients, processors face increasing pressure to deliver products that are not only high quality, but also easy to handle, store, and package efficiently.

My name is Andy Riddick.At Cabot Corporation, I lead Technical Services & New Business Development activities focused on helping manufacturers solve formulation and processing challenges. While Cabot is widely recognized as a global leader in carbon black, the company is also one of the world’s leading producers of fumed metal oxides, including CAB-O-SIL® fumed silica, which plays an important role in food processing applications where powder flowability and moisture management are critical.

Why Tomato Powders Can Be Challenging

Tomato powders offer many advantages, including ease of transport, long shelf life, convenience, and concentrated flavour. However, they can also present significant handling challenges.

Many tomato powders contain naturally occurring sugars, organic acids, fine particles, and hygroscopic components that readily absorb moisture from the environment. As a result, processors frequently encounter:

• Caking during storage
• Poor discharge from silos, bins, and hoppers
• Inconsistent feeding into packaging equipment
• Agglomeration during transport
• Reduced dosing accuracy
• Production interruptions caused by blockages

Even small increases in moisture uptake can dramatically reduce powder flow performance and increase operational costs.

How Fumed Silica Works in Tomato Powders

Fumed silica consists of extremely small amorphous silicon dioxide particles with exceptionally high surface area.

When incorporated at low concentrations, typically between 0.2% and 1%, fumed silica particles can position themselves between tomato powder particles, creating microscopic separation. This helps minimize particle-to-particle interactions that contribute to caking and poor flow while improving bulk powder mobility.

As a result, processors may realize benefits throughout storage, handling, and packing operations, including:

• Improved free flow characteristics
• Reduced caking tendency
• Better hopper discharge
• More consistent packaging operations
• Improved storage stability
• Enhanced manufacturing efficiency (Reduced downtime related to material blockages)
• • Improved packaging line efficiency

Because only very small addition levels are normally required, processors can often achieve significant improvements without materially affecting product flavour, color, or functionality.

CAB-O-SIL® Fumed Silica Solutions

Cabot’s CAB-O-SIL® fumed silica products have been used for decades as performance additives across a wide range of industries.

For food powder applications, grades such as CAB-O-SIL® M5F & EH5F fumed silicas food grades are commonly proven due to their extensive regulatory approvals and excellent performance

Potential benefits for tomato powder manufacturers include:

• Enhanced Flowability: Improved powder movement can help maintain efficient operations from blending through packaging.
• Reduced Moisture Sensitivity: The high surface area of fumed silica can help manage the effects of environmental humidity that often lead to caking and lump formation.
• Improved Processing Consistency: Better flow properties can contribute to more uniform feeding, blending, filling, and dosing performance.
• Supply Chain Advantages: Powders that remain free flowing after transportation and storage are less likely to require rework or manual intervention.

Beyond Anti-Caking

While anti-caking performance remains a key performance requirement, leading food processors are increasingly evaluating powder performance across the entire manufacturing and distribution process.

Questions worth considering include:

• How does the powder perform after three months of storage?
• What happens after temperature cycling during transportation?
• Does bulk density remain consistent?
• Is packaging efficiency affected by powder flow variations?
• Are there seasonal changes caused by humidity fluctuations?

These factors can influence overall production efficiency just as much as the base formulation itself.

Supporting Innovation in Food Ingredients

At Cabot, we recognize that powder performance challenges are often application-specific and influenced by formulations, processing conditions, packaging and storage environments.. Our technical teams work closely with manufacturers to understand these variables and identify practical solutions that improve product performance and operational efficiency.

Whether the objective is reducing caking, improving flowability, enhancing handling characteristics, or optimizing powder processing, fumed silica can be a valuable tool in the formulation toolbox.

The tomato powder market continues to grow as consumers seek convenience, flavour, and longer shelf life. As processors strive to meet these demands, advanced ingredient technologies such as CAB-O-SIL® fumed silica can help ensure that powders remain as easy to process as they are to use.

Alongside proven performance, Cabot supports customers with the regulatory documentation and technical expertise needed to evaluate suitable CAB-O-SIL® fumed silica grades for food-processing applications.

About the Author

Andy Riddick is Director, Technical Services & New Business Development at Cabot Corporation, supporting customers across EMEA and globally with specialty carbon black, fumed silica, fumed alumina, and black masterbatch technologies. His work focuses on helping manufacturers solve technical challenges, improve product performance, and accelerate innovation across a broad range of industrial and consumer applications.

About Cabot Corporation

Cabot Corporation is a leading global specialty chemicals and performance materials company. Through its CAB-O-SIL® portfolio, Cabot provides high-performance fumed silica solutions used in applications ranging from food processing and pharmaceuticals to adhesives, coatings, sealants, and advanced industrial materials.