Foods High in Lycopene: A Per-Serving Table (USDA Data)

By the ProstateFoods editorial team · Last updated October 13, 2026 Short answer: Processed tomato products carry the most lycopene per serving. Half a cup of tomato purée or tomato sauce has roughly 17 to 27 mg, a cup of tomato juice about 22 mg, and a cup of diced watermelon about 7 mg. Raw tomatoes have less per cup than canned or cooked ones, and red bell peppers and carrots have almost none.

Lycopene is the red carotenoid pigment in tomatoes, watermelon, pink grapefruit, guava and papaya. There is no Recommended Dietary Allowance for it, so the table below shows amounts only, with no "% Daily Value."

Lycopene per serving

Nutrient values are from USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (April 2018 release), calculated per the serving shown from USDA's per-100 g figures and USDA portion weights. Values vary by variety, brand and growing conditions.

Why canned and cooked tomatoes rank higher

Two things push processed tomato products up the list. First, removing water concentrates everything, which is why paste and sun-dried tomatoes top the per-100 g rankings. Second, the lycopene in heat-processed tomatoes appears to be absorbed better. In a small human study, the same dose of lycopene eaten as tomato paste with oil produced about 2.5 times the peak blood lycopene and 3.8 times the total response compared with fresh tomatoes [2]. Lycopene is fat-soluble, which is why that study served it with oil.

In practice: a spoonful of tomato paste stirred into a soup, or a pasta sauce made with a little olive oil, carries far more lycopene than a few slices of raw tomato.

Practical ways to use the table

• Keep tomato paste in a tube. One tablespoon adds about 4.6 mg to soups, stews and chili, and the tube keeps in the fridge after opening. Amore double-concentrated tomato paste comes in a tube.
• Choose low-sodium canned products. Sauce, purée and juice are high in lycopene but often high in salt; "no salt added" versions have the same lycopene in USDA's data.
• Watermelon and pink grapefruit are the main non-tomato sources most people can buy year-round. If you take a statin or another medicine with a grapefruit warning, ask your pharmacist before eating grapefruit.
• Our recipe: simple tomato sauce with olive oil.

What lycopene does and doesn't do

Lycopene gets attention because of research on tomatoes and prostate health. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reviewed that research in 2005, rejected claims about lycopene itself, and allowed only a heavily qualified statement about tomatoes that ends: "FDA concludes that there is little scientific evidence supporting this claim" [3][4]. We cover that review in Lycopene: What the Research Actually Says.

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, SR Legacy (2018). https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/
2. Gärtner C, Stahl W, Sies H. Lycopene is more bioavailable from tomato paste than from fresh tomatoes. Am J Clin Nutr. 1997;66(1):116-22. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9209178/
3. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Qualified Health Claims: Letters of Denial (includes lycopene and prostate cancer, 2005). https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-food-labeling-and-critical-foods/qualified-health-claims-letters-denial
4. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Qualified Health Claims: Letters of Enforcement Discretion (includes tomatoes and prostate cancer, 2005). https://www.fda.gov/food/nutrition-food-labeling-and-critical-foods/qualified-health-claims-letters-enforcement-discretion

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ProstateFoods writes about food, not treatment. Nothing here is medical advice or a claim that any food treats, cures or prevents a disease. Talk to your doctor before changing how you eat, especially if you take medication or have a health condition. See our medical disclaimer. Photo: Tomato paste on spoon by SKopp, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.