One aspect of the present invention provides a continuous process for
producing a fruit and/or vegetable paste comprising separating a
continuous stream of fruit and/or vegetable juice into a low solids serum
stream and a high solids pulp stream and concentrating the serum stream
in a concentrator before recombining it with the pulp stream to produce a
recombined stream; wherein the Brix concentration of the recombined
stream is automatically adjusted to a constant level by combining the
concentrated serum stream, the pulp stream and/or the recombined stream
with an adjustable amount of a diluent stream and by automatically
adjusting the flow rate of the diluent stream to compensate for
fluctuations in the Brix concentration of the pulp stream and/or the
concentrated serum stream. The invention also provides a plant for the
production of a fruit and/or vegetable paste that can suitably be used to
operate the aforementioned continuous process.