Briefly, tomatoes were subjected to extensive washing under
running water, blanched in water at 70 C for 5 min, crushed and
sieved by a Reber 9004 N tomato squeezer (Reber, Luzzara, Italy)
in order to obtain a tomato purée made up of cell clumps of similar
size to the sieve used (1 mm), separated from skins, seeds and vas-