Going to the sauce of Domino’s tomatoes
Tom-ay-to, tom-ah-to… however you say it, there’s nothing like biting into a hot and fresh slice of pizza and having the tangy tomato-based pizza sauce that you find on many Domino’s pizzas tantalise your tastebuds.
But where does Domino’s get this delicious signature sauce from, which has people declaring their love from their “head to-ma-toes”? Right here in Australia!
FARM FRESH: Green vines as far as the eye can see on Kagome’s tomato farm.
Yep, Domino’s classic pizza sauce is made from a majority of Australian ingredients, grown by local farmers. The hero ingredient? Juicy fresh tomatoes, of course!
Since 1996, Domino’s pizza sauce supplier, Kagome, has been located in Echuca in the Goulburn Valley which is known as Victoria’s ‘fruit bowl’ – and rightly so, with the region suited to growing tomatoes due to its steady weather conditions.
From growing tomatoes from seeds right through to harvesting the crop and producing products such as tomato paste and diced tomatoes, Kagome grow 40 per cent of their own tomato crops allowing them to closely monitor each and every tomato that enters their processing factory.
VINE RIPENED: Kagome tomatoes ready for harvesting.
The other 60 per cent of tomatoes used by Kagome are grown by local Australian farmers in a close partnership which consists of knowledge sharing to ensure the best possible tomatoes are produced and used to make Domino’s very own pizza sauce – even Domino’s Hickory BBQ sauce is made using Kagome’s tomatoes!
With Kagome’s tomatoes farmed over 2,000 hectares, one of the key focuses of Kagome is making sure no freshly harvested tomato travels more than 90 minutes to be processed.
Why? Because less travel time equals better flavour and quality of the end product. You can’t argue with that!
But just how does this vibrantly coloured fruit end up as a sauce on your pizza? Well, the journey of Domino’s famous pizza sauce starts a little like this:
With the help of more than 300 workers during peak tomato season, Kagome produces their very own seeds, which are grown into seedlings by Australian nurseries before being transferred to local farms for planting.
MAKING HASTE TO BECOME PASTE: Fresh tomatoes on their way to being transformed into tomato paste.
For the next 130 days, the tomato crops are closely tended to until it’s time to harvest. Once harvested, the tomatoes are transported from the farm to the nearby Kagome factory, where workers begin making a tomato paste using the freshly harvested tomatoes to form the main ingredient of Domino’s Tomato and BBQ Sauce.
Finishing touches such as a signature mix of herbs and spices and a hint of chilli are added to the pizza sauce, while garlic and a smokiness can be tasted in the BBQ sauce, before the end flavour, smell, appearance, and texture of each sauce is assessed by Kagome to receive the tick of approval.
We bet you’re wondering how with so many tomato varieties – Roma, Heirloom, Beefsteak (and more!), Kagome know exactly which tomato is right for Domino’s?
Well, the variety depends on the end product, with some seeds developed to become diced tomato products, whereas others make for the perfect tomato paste due to their rich colour. What is guaran-seed? A delicious tomato!
A TOMATO OR TWO: Millions of kilograms of juicy tomatoes are harvested by Kagome every single year.
Each tomato season, Kagome produces 200 million (yes, you read that correctly) kilograms of fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes, with these tasty red fruits then used to make around 65 million kilograms of finished tomato products – including those that end up on your favourite Domino’s pizza!
So no matter whether you’re a pizza sauce lover or a fan of a smoky BBQ sauce topped base, or whether you say tom-ah-to or tom-ay-to (even though we all know which one is correct), next time you’re enjoying your Domino’s pizza, we can all agree on one thing: your pizza wouldn’t be the same without the addition of this locally grown, vine-ripened fruit. It really is saucy stuff.
