Tomato Sauce: A Story of Alleged Poisonings and Global Success
ZACMI and Tomato Sauce: What’s the Connection?
Before unveiling a series of unexpected curiosities and unknown anecdotes about tomato sauce, let’s understand why we’ve chosen to talk about this product in this fourth episode of ZACMI’s Worldwide Tour.
As you may already know, this column aims to discuss our service technicians, whose precious work involves visiting our Customers’ sites to carry out various post-sales assistance interventions, machinery maintenance, training and staff development, supporting companies in the start-up of new machinery.
We discussed the latter aspect in the previous episode, while today we want to peek into the operations of a major Italian company producing tomato sauce and tell you how we provided training to their staff, enabling them to become completely independent in performing basic seaming operations with one of our machines.
The cover photo highlights a series of tools used to adjust the seaming machine itself. But we’ll cover this in detail very soon.
The second purpose of this column, as you know, concerns the cultural aspects of the F&B industry and since our machinery is essential in the processing of many human and animal food and beverage products, we decided to discuss one specific product at a time.
And in this particular case, tomato sauce has plenty to tell. So, let’s begin!
From Poisoned Apple to Love Apple to Golden Apple: The Strange Case of the Tomato
If you’re wondering, Snow White and the Grimm Brothers have nothing to do with it, although, given the development of the tomato’s story in our continent, some fairy tale resemblances are not hard to find.
You should know that the tomato, coming from across the ocean, arrived in Europe only in the 16th century and was introduced by the Spanish explorer and military officer Hernan Cortes.
Botanically speaking, it is the berry of a plant (Solanum Lycopersicum) native to Central and South America, highly utilized by the Aztecs, who attributed it with aphrodisiac properties. It is for this reason that, in France, it was initially called “pomme d’amour” (love apple).
The Aztec name was instead “xitomatl” or “tomatl,” from which “tomato/tomate” in Spanish, English, German, and French derives. But why is it called “pomodoro” (golden apple) in Italian, then? We’ll find out shortly.
It was certainly Sicily that first became acquainted with the existence of this vegetable, resembling an apple in appearance, through the direct influence on the island from Spain. Initially, the tomato was considered poisonous, especially among the aristocrats, who called it “poisoned apple.”
This belief, however, was hard to die out, due to the fact that wealthy Europeans used pewter plates, rich in lead, which, due to the acidity of tomatoes, released lead during cooking, causing poisonings and intoxications.
The tomato plant also closely resembled the Solanum nigrum, a solanaceous plant with high sedative properties.
Together with that of the potato, the tomato plant was indeed considered a mere ornamental plant, especially due to its golden berries. You should indeed know that before the botanical selections made, the colour of the tomato was a beautiful golden yellow.
Hence the origin of the name that has been passed down to us: “pomo d’oro,” golden apple.
How the Tomato Became Food
It is very difficult to reconstruct the path that led this plant from a mere decoration to an ingredient in dishes, recipes and cuisines.
It was only in the 17th century that sporadic mentions of the tomato’s culinary use can be found. It was consumed fresh, squeezed, or boiled and Antonio Latini, a Neapolitan cook, in his book “Lo scalco alla Moderna” from 1692, speaks of a recipe he calls “salsa di pomodoro alla spagnuola” (Spanish-style tomato sauce).
It wasn’t until the 1800s that tomato cultivation for culinary purposes spread throughout Europe.
It seems that it principally derived from the invention of pizza in 1880 which used tomato sauce as a fundamental ingredient and from then onwards it really began to overcome European suspicions and spread widely in the kitchen.
Nonetheless, this could also be a legend that we Italians particularly enjoy embracing, for obvious traditional reasons.
However, no one denies that a beautiful pizza with “pummarola n’coppa” (Neapolitan dialect for “tomato sauce topping”), mozzarella and a few basil leaves immediately brings to mind the tri-colour Italian flag and the typical flavours of Italian cuisine.
Nevertheless, it’s undeniable that this solanaceous plant found in the Italian Mediterranean climate an ideal habitat to flourish. As a result, tomato sauce has evolved into a symbol of Italian gastronomy, with Italian tomatoes ranking among the finest globally, due to the quality of the soil and sophisticated cultivation techniques.
ZACMI and Tomato Sauce: How We Help Companies Get This Product on Shelves
As you’re likely aware, tomatoes are a highly consumed food in Europe and around the world and in the areas where ZACMI had its growth, such as Parma and its surroundings, where many companies produce top-quality tomato sauce. Together with the Campania, Puglia and Sicily regions, Emilia is considered a leader in this field. We’ll have the opportunity to go deeper into the production processes of sauce in a new column we’ll discuss in the coming weeks.
However, today, after revealing some curiosities about tomatoes, we want to tell you about the support we provided to a major Italian company (for privacy reasons, we cannot disclose its name) that produces tomato sauce and uses ZACMI seamers within its production line.
Our technicians went directly to the Customer’s premises and conducted personnel training, structuring the training into two specific sessions.
A theoretical part, where they explained the operation of the machinery in detail, supplemented with handouts and specific information material that can serve as a basis for any technical needs the Customer may have.
A practical part: this is where we invite you to take a look at the photo.
We won’t too much into technical details, but we’re sure you’ll notice a bundle of wires.
These are actually calibrated probes used to adjust the seaming rolls. In fact, with these tools, we carry out what is called seam setting.
The black keys are instead used for further mechanical adjustments, while on the far right, there’s a comparator that allows adjusting the height of the roll relative to the chuck.
But what is all this for?
Adjustment is crucial to respect the standard seaming parameters, as it is necessary to have specific gap values between the chuck lip and the roll. We’re talking about a few hundredths, which are nonetheless crucial for distinguishing a perfect seam from a defective one.
Therefore, with the training provided by our technicians, in case of a seam defect, the workers within the company are now completely autonomous in solving the problem quickly.
As you can imagine, this means significant time and cost savings and improved efficiency of the entire production line, since basic operations can be carried out internally without the need for intervention by third-party technicians.
In addition to this type of training, our specialists presented simulations of possible defects, showing the Customer what happens, how to recognize seaming errors and explaining how to quickly resolve the problem.
This is how, with continuous support, ZACMI provides to companies that choose our products the optimization of production processes aimed at through the design of highly engineered machinery and punctual and careful after-sales assistance. In this way, we contribute to bringing tomatoes, one of the most beloved and iconic products of Italian culinary art to your shelves. This time in the form of sauce.