Food profile ยท Fruit & carotenoids
Tomato
From a juicy slice to a concentrated paste.
A tomato can bring freshness to a summer salad or become a dense paste in a cooked dish. Those preparations share a plant, but not an identical food structure or nutrient concentration. The red pigment lycopene offers a useful way to explore how preparation, absorption and skin research fit together.
Meet the food
A botanical fruit in a savory role.
The cultivated tomato is Solanum lycopersicum. Botanically, its fruit is a berry with seeds enclosed in mucilage, the slippery material around them. Tomatoes vary in shape and size, and their fruit can be red or yellow. The older name Lycopersicon esculentum also appears in botanical and ingredient records. [1]
This article concerns the edible tomato fruit. Fresh tomatoes, tomato paste, isolated lycopene and cosmetic extracts are distinct materials. Keep the preparation attached to the name when comparing nutrition information or a study.
A portion in focus
Use the weight beside the serving name.
FDA's raw-produce reference uses a 148 g edible portion for a medium tomato, listing 25 calories, 5 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber and 340 mg potassium. These are rounded reference values, not a promise that every tomato weighs the same or has identical composition. [2]
Vitamin C
Tomatoes supply vitamin C, alongside minerals and fiber. A whole food contributes a mixture rather than just its most recognizable pigment. [3]
Lycopene
Lycopene is a carotenoid, but not a vitamin A precursor. [4]
A spoonful of concentrated paste and the same weight of fresh fruit are not equivalent portions. For a packaged sauce or paste, compare its own serving size and ingredient list, including added salt, rather than borrowing the raw-food figures.
Preparation and absorption
More available is not the same as more nutritious in every way.
A 1997 human study compared fresh tomatoes with tomato paste, each supplying 23 mg lycopene and eaten with 15 g corn oil. Researchers measured lycopene in chylomicrons, the particles carrying newly absorbed dietary fats. The paste produced a larger lycopene response, while alpha- and beta-carotene responses did not differ. [5]
What does a larger post-meal lycopene response mean?
This single-meal experiment supports a preparation-specific difference in lycopene availability. It does not show that every cooked tomato is better than every raw tomato, nor does an absorption measurement establish a skin benefit. The accessible abstract does not report the participant count.
Original skin research
Read both the positive and unchanged measures.
In a 2011 randomized trial, 20 women with phototypes I or II consumed 55 g tomato paste in olive oil, or olive oil alone, daily for 12 weeks. The paste supplied 16 mg lycopene. After controlled UV exposure, an instrument-based redness measure favored the paste group, but the visually assessed minimal erythema dose, the threshold for visible redness, did not differ significantly between groups. [6]
A second small trial found no improvement in the visible-redness threshold
A separate 2015 randomized comparison assigned 20 participants to tomato paste or lycopene capsules for ten weeks; three withdrew. It found no improvement in the visually assessed minimal erythema dose in either group. There was no untreated comparison group. [7]
These small studies used particular preparations and UV-testing methods, with mixed results. They do not establish an SPF for food or prove prevention of skin cancer. Enjoy tomatoes as food, while continuing sunscreen, protective clothing and shade for sun protection. [8]
In the kitchen
Whole and cut tomatoes need different handling.
Wash whole tomatoes before preparation without soap or bleach. Cut tomatoes need refrigeration within two hours in a covered container at 40ยฐF or below. [3]
From the cookbook manuscript
Peach & Burrata Summer Salad
Raw tomato brings a juicy, savory contrast to peach, burrata and peppery leaves. This culinary use remains different from the daily tomato-paste preparations studied above.
At a glance
Reference box
- Food identity
- Tomato ยท Solanum lycopersicum ยท Edible fruit.
- Related older name
- Lycopersicon esculentum.
- Nutrient connections
- Lycopene ยท Vitamin C ยท Potassium ยท Fiber.
- Compare carefully
- Raw fruit ยท Paste ยท Sauce ยท Isolated pigment ยท Cosmetic extract.
Sources to follow
Revision reviewed October 25, 2026.
- Kew Plants of the World Online: Solanum lycopersicum. Botanical names and fruit description.
- FDA: Nutrition Information for Raw Vegetables. Raw, edible-weight reference; rounded amounts only, not the poster's older Daily Value percentages.
- Texas A&M AgriLife Extension: Safe Handling of Fresh Tomatoes. Food composition context and household handling.
- NIH: Vitamin A.
- Gรคrtner, Stahl and Sies, 1997: Lycopene availability from paste and fresh tomatoes. Original human meal study, indexed abstract reviewed.
- Rizwan and colleagues, 2011: Tomato paste and cutaneous photodamage. Original randomized trial, indexed abstract reviewed.
- Sokoloski, Borges and Bagatin, 2015: Lycopene capsule and tomato-paste comparison. Original randomized study with null photoprotection findings, indexed abstract reviewed.
- FDA: Tips to Stay Safe in the Sun. Sunscreen, clothing and shade.
