Lycopene gives tomatoes, pink grapefruit, watermelon, and guava their red color. In many countries, the majority of lycopene in the diet comes from tomatoes and tomato products like tomato sauce, tomato paste, and ketchup.

 

The bioavailability of lycopene from tomatoes is substantially improved by heating tomatoes in oil.

 

Synthetic lycopene and lycopene from natural sources, mainly tomatoes, are available as nutritional supplements. Many commercial supplements provide 5–20 mg of lycopene.