. The nature of the chromoplasts in different plant tissues
may influence their release within the gastrointestinal tract after
ingestion, which would be expected to influence carotenoid
bioaccessibility.
Lycopene bioaccessibility, which is usually taken to be the fraction
incorporated into mixed micelles formed in the small intestine,
is typically quite low in raw tomato products, ranging
between about 0.1 and 3% (Reboul et al., 2006). This is a consequence
of the lipophilic nature of carotenoids, their high melting
point, and their entrapment in complex structures within tomato
tissue. In fact, carotenoids have to be released from the food matrix
after ingestion and be incorporated in the micelle fraction before
becoming absorbable in the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, the