28/30 or 36/38: What the Brix Number on Tomato Paste Actually Buys You

Tomato paste is bought by a number before it is bought by taste. That number is Brix, and the two bands the trade uses — 28/30 for double concentrate, 36/38 for triple — are the first line of almost every specification. Buyers who understand what the number does, and what it does not do, write better briefs and avoid the two most common disappointments in the category.

What Brix measures

Degrees Brix express soluble solids as a proportion of the product. In tomato paste that is a proxy for how much of the paste is tomato and how much is water. Fresh tomatoes are mostly water; concentration by evaporation removes it, and the Brix figure records how far the process went.

Double concentrate sits at 28 to 30 °Brix and must contain at least 28 % dry residue. Triple concentrate sits at 36 to 38 °Brix with a minimum of 36 %. Both thresholds are net of added sugars — sugar cannot be used to lift a paste over the line.

The bands are ranges rather than points because evaporation is a controlled process that settles within a band, not at a value. A supplier can hold 28 to 30 batch after batch; nobody can hold exactly 29.

Higher concentration is a logistics decision

Triple concentrate carries less water per unit of tomato solids. For a manufacturer that will dilute the paste back to working strength on site, that means lower freight and storage cost per tonne of tomato actually used, and fewer drums to handle. The paste arrives denser and is reconstituted in the plant.

Double concentrate is closer to the strength that many retail packs and food-service kitchens use directly. It spreads and mixes without a dilution step. For a buyer whose product is the paste itself, or who wants a working consistency straight from the container, the extra concentration of a triple would be paid for and then undone.

So the question is not which is better. It is what happens to the paste after delivery. A brief that answers that question first will land on the right band without further debate.

What the number does not tell you

Brix is silent on the two properties a consumer notices first: colour and body.

Redness comes from the fruit and from how gently it was processed; it is measured separately and specified separately. Consistency — how the paste flows, how much body it gives a sauce — comes largely from the break process at the start of production and from the pectin that process preserves or destroys. Two lots at identical Brix can differ visibly in colour and noticeably in body. A specification that stops at Brix has specified the water content and nothing else.

Writing the band into the specification

The practical elements are the Brix band with the analytical method named; the minimum dry residue; a statement that no sugar is added; and, separately, the colour and consistency parameters that Brix does not cover. Batch analysis should report all of them, so that a delivered lot can be checked against the brief rather than against an impression.

A shortfall on Brix is not a safety issue. It is a commercial one: the buyer has received more water than they paid for, and a recipe built on the specified strength will run short. That is precisely why the number belongs in the analysis rather than only in the purchase order.

Where we sit

TeraVella works in tomato paste as a sourcing partner — we do not claim to own a processing plant or an aseptic line. We verify a producer against your brief, fix the Brix band and the colour and consistency parameters in writing, collect batch analyses with the destination's required parameters, and manage documented shipment. Industrial supply is in aseptic drums; retail is in tins or jars, packed under your own brand where required. We hold ISO 9001, ISO 22000 and ISO 27001 and make no organic or other certification claim. Volumes and prices are confirmed at quotation.