BACKGROUND AND PRIIOR ART OF THE INVENTION Reference may be made to UK patent GB845937, wherein a powdered soup product and a method of making the same are described. The process is for the preparation of a dry pre- cooked soup mix, which disperses readily in hot or cold water.

Reference may also be made to the commercial soup powders available in the market by different companies like M/s Knorr, Germany.

Reference may be made to US patent No. US3676154, wherein a process for shelf stable tomato soup concentrate is described. The process is for preparation of a soup concentrate, which can be diluted to required consistency by adding hot or cold water.

Reference may also be made to the commercial soup concentrates available in the market by different companies like M/s MTR, India.

Reference may be made to a patent PL325703, wherein a process for deep frozen tomato soup and a method for making the same are described. The process is for the preparation of frozen soup, which can be prepared to required consistency by adding hot water.

Reference may be made to a freeze dried soup product along with vegetable chunks, available in the international market prepared by M/s Healthy Choice (http://www. Healthychoice. com). The product can be prepared to required consistency by adding hot.

The drawbacks of the above processes are the preparation required at the customer end, as it is not ready-to-serve. A lot of energy is spent in making the liquid soup into powder form and a lot of energy is spent in freezing the liquid soup. Additionally, additives like milk powder and stabilizers like starch are added. It does not contain vegetable chunks as compared to the present invention, which enhances the organoleptic property and

nutritional content of the product. Also, the prior art product requires freezing conditions to store the product, which adds to the cost.

The Applicants would like to mention here that the term"Fo value"being used in the specification represents the value of energy accumulated by a food product during the whole cycle of sterilization. Fo value in short represents the number of minutes the food is actually exposed at the reference sterilization temperature of 121. 11°C. It is commonly known that 1 Fo is the equivalent of energy accumulated in the food product if the same is exposed to a cycle of 1 minute at 121. 11°C with saturated steam. Therefore, 20 Fo is the equivalent of energy accumulated in the food product if the same is exposed to a cycle of 20 minutes at 121. 11°C with saturated steam.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The main object of the present invention is to provide process for preparing a shelf stable ready-to-serve soup optionally having vegetable pieces/meat chunks or lettuce.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a ready-to-serve (no necessity of adding pepper also) tomato soup with mixed vegetables.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a ready-to-serve tomato soup with mixed vegetables, which has enhanced organoleptic property and nutritional content.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for preparing a shelf stable, ready-to-use soup having improved organoleptic properties and nutritional content, said method comprising the steps of boiling the soup and optionally mixing the same with cleaned and boiled vegetable pieces/meat chunks/lettuce ; filling the boiled soup thus obtained into a container and sealing thereof, and sterilizing the sealed container containing the soup in a retort at Fo value in the range of 6-10 and cooling the same to obtain the desired soup.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention relates to a method for preparing a shelf stable, ready- to-use soup having improved organoleptic and nutritional properties, said method comprising the steps of : a) boiling the soup and optionally mixing the same with cleaned and boiled vegetable pieces/meat chunks/lettuce ; b) filling the boiled soup of step (a) into a container and sealing thereof ; and c) sterilizing the sealed container of step (b), with steam in a retort at Fo value in the range of 6 to 10 and cooling the same and obtain the desired soup.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the soup is prepared from vegetables and the vegetables are selected from the group consisting of tomato, potato, cauliflower, green peas, carrot, spring onion etc.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the soup is prepared from tomatoes.

In yet another embodiment of the present invention, wherein in step (a) the vegetables are boiled for a time period in the range of 5-15 minutes.

In still another embodiment of the present invention, any rigid container like easy to open flip top aluminium or tin cans or glass jars or flexible pouches can be used.

In still another embodiment of the present invention, wherein the container is made of aluminium.

In still another embodiment of the present invention, any method of heating in any type of heating system using any other medium of heating can be used to achieve the said sterilization value (Fo value of 6-10).

In still another embodiment of the present invention wherein in step (c), 6-8 sealed containers fixed with temperature sensors are simultaneously loaded in the retort.

In still another embodiment of the present invention wherein in the retort, the Fo value is kept in the range of 7 to 9.

In still another embodiment of the present invention wherein in step (a), preservatives and flavouring agents are optionally incorporated.

In yet another embodiment of the present invention wherein the preservatives are selected from monosodium glutamate (MSG) and ascorbic acid and the flavouring agents are selected from chilli, pepper, oleoresins, salt etc.

In still another embodiment of the present invention wherein in step (c) soup thus obtained is free from thermophillic spore forms, mesophilic aerobes, yeasts, moulds and coliforms for at least 6 months and the soup is storable for six months having similar sensory attributes more than 7.5.

In still another embodiment of the present invention wherein in step (b) the pH value of soup maintained at about 4.0.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a shelf stable ready-to-serve tomato soup with mixed vegetables as detailed below.

Tomato soup is prepared with standard recipe (pH of 4.00) with or without preservatives using any standard protocol. Vegetables (potato, cauliflower, green peas, carrot, <BR> spring onion etc. ,) are cleaned to remove any extraneous and washed thoroughly. Cleaned

vegetables are cut into 10mm dices and blanched for 5 minutes in boiling water. About 50g of these vegetable mixture is filled into container and 300g of boiling tomato soup is added. A pinch of chilli and pepper oleoresins are added to enhance the flavour. The containers are sealed. Since, the size of the containers is of lower capacity no need to exhaust, but care should be taken to fill the boiling soup. The sealed containers are loaded into retort and about six to eight containers are fixed with temperature sensors, retort is closed and the processing is started. Fo value of 6 to 10 is set on the control system and steam is let in. The temperature and pressure are automatically controlled. Once, the set sterilization value is attained, heating stops and cooling starts, automatically. Once the retort reaches 50°C, the processing stops and system gives an audiovisual alarm. The process history is printed out and filed for records, the cold water is drained off and containers removed from the retort and stored. The above system relates to a patent reference of 1196/DEL/99. The product is analyzed for microbial and sensory analysis following standard protocols.

In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the soup thus obtained can be taken either as such or can be heated without opening the package or can be boiled after opening the packet and without adding water.

The novelty of the present product is shelf stable, ready-to-serve soup with mixed vegetables to enhance organoleptic property and nutritional content of the product. The product is improved with spice (Chilli & pepper) oleoresins, which enhances the flavour of the soup.

The invention is illustrated in the following examples which are given by way of illustration and should not be considered to construe the scope of the invention in any manner.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS Figure 1 : shows the flow chart illustrating the process for preparing tomato soup with vegetable chunks.

Figure 2 shows the profilogram of the tomato soup thus obtained.

Example 1 About 50 kg of tomato soup was prepared using standard recipe. The pH of the soup was 4.00. Vegetables (potato, cauliflower, carrot) were cleaned to remove any extraneous and washed thoroughly. Cleaned vegetables were cut into 10mm dices and blanched for 5 minutes in boiling water. About 50g of these vegetable mixture was filled into easy open

type flip open aluminium cans (99 x 55 mm; 500 g capacity) and 250g of boiling tomato soup was added. A pinch of chilli and pepper oleoresns was added to enhance the flavour.

The containers were sealed. Since, the size of the containers was of lower capacity no need to exhaust, but care was taken to fill the boiling soup. The sealed containers were loaded into retort and five containers were fixed with temperature sensors. The retort was closed and the containers were processed at a Fo value of 7. The temperature and pressure were automatically controlled. After, the set sterilization value was reached, heating was stopped and cooling started automatically. Once the retort reached 50°C, the processing stopped and system gave an audiovisual alarm. The process history was printed out and filed for records, the cold water was drained off and containers removed from the retort and stored.

The product was analyzed for microbial and sensory analysis following standard protocols.

The results are indicated below.

Example 2 About 50 kg of tomato soup was prepared using standard recipe. The pH of the soup was 4.00. Vegetables (potato, cauliflower, carrot, green peas and spring onions) were cleaned to remove any extraneous and washed thoroughly. Cleaned vegetables were cut into l Omm dices and blanched for 5 minutes in boiling water. About 50g of these vegetable mixture was filled into easy open type flip open aluminium cans (99 x 55 mm; 500 g capacity) and 250g of boiling tomato soup was added. A pinch of chilli and pepper oleoresns was added to enhance the flavour. The containers were sealed. Since, the size of the containers was of lower capacity no need to exhaust, but care was taken to fill the boiling soup. The sealed containers were loaded into retort and five containers were fixed with temperature sensors.

The retort was closed and the containers were processed at a Fo value of 8.7. The temperature and pressure were automatically controlled. After, the set sterilization value was reached, heating was stopped and cooling started automatically. Once the retort reached 50°C, the processing stopped and system gave an audiovisual alarm. The process history was printed out and filed for records, the cold water was drained off and containers removed from the retort and stored. The product was analyzed for microbial and sensory analysis following standard protocols. The results are indicated herebelow.

Example 3 Microbial analysis Nature of Samples: Convenience products (pH>4.6), thermally processed in hermetically sealed rigid aluminum containers.

Classification: Low acidified foods.

Procedure: <BR> <BR> 1. Incubation Test (for determination of Commercial Sterility. ) : Samples incubated for a period of 3 days at 25°C 2. Sub-culture: Incubated samples were examined for the presence of thermophilic spore forms (both aerobic and anaerobic) Mesophilic aerobes, colifonns and for yeasts and molds on Potato Dextrose Agar.

For more details on the procedure, please refer"Compendium of methods for the microbiological examination of foods: American Public Health Association. (1992) Carl Vanderzant and Don F. Splittstoesser Eds. Washington D. C. p. 1037-1049"and Standard prescribed from NCA, USA (cfu/mL) Table 1: Illustrates the amount of different bacteria present in the final soup Thermophilic spore Mesophilic aerobes Yeasts & molds Coliforms forms <10 Nil Nil Nil Table 1: Illustrates the amount of different bacteria present in the soup which are processed under different conditions and after different time period of storage Status of the sample Thermophilic Mesophilic Yeasts & Coliforms Remarks spore fonns aerobes molds Anaerobic Aerobic Cfu/mL Cfu/mL Cfu/mL Unprocessed------1. 8 x 10'< 1 x 10 5 x 10 Unsafe Processed (Fo = Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Safe 7) Processed (Fo = Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Safe 8.7) Stored Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Safe 2 months Stored Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Safe 4 months Stored Nil Nil Nil Nil Nil Safe 6 months Sensory analysis Sensory evaluation of canned soup was carried out by trained panel using Quantitative Descriptive Analysis technique. The canned soup was compared to fresh soup

(unprocessed) to which fresh vegetables (cauliflower, carrot and potato) diced and blanched, were added prior to sensory evaluation. The results of sensory analysis indicated that the canned soup was more brownish in colour and had more of cooked tomato aroma notes as compared to unprocessed soup, which had more desirable fresh tomato aroma notes. Doneness of vegetables was more in the canned soup. Sourness and spicy aroma notes were perceived to be higher in the canned soup than in the unprocessed soup.

Although overall quality of canned soup was rated 7.7, it was slightly less than that of the unprocessed soup (8.7). The profilogram is indicated in figure 2.

Storage studies Microbiological studies indicated that the products were safe after a storage period of 180 days (6 months). The sensory analysis data is indicated below in the form of table 3 in comparison with unprocessed, canned and stored products Table 3: Mean scores of major sensory attributes Sample Attributes Body Doneness of Spicy Cooked vegetable Overall vegetables aroma aroma Unprocessed 5.7 8.7 7. 1 6. 9 8. 7 Canned 7.0 9.2 8. 2 6. 2 7. 7 Canned and 6.8 9.3 7.8 6.4 7. 6 stored for 6 months The results of sensory analysis indicated that the sensory quality of freshly canned sample and that of stored sample did not differ significantly (p < 0.05). It was observed that although there was a marginal increase in the metallic after taste, they were well below the threshold values. No other pff-flavour or defective notes were detected in the stored samples. The overall quality remained close to that of the freshly canned sample.

Therefore, canned samples stored for 6 months had acceptable sensory quality without showing any significant increase in undesirable quality attributes.