Due to its ubiquity, lycopene has been licensed for use as a Food coloring. Because lycopene is so insoluble in water and is so tightly bound to vegetable fiber, the bioavailablity of lycopene is increased by food processing. For example cooking and crushing tomatoes (as in the canning process) and serving in oil-rich dishes (such as spaghetti sauce or pizza) greatly increases assimilation from the digestive tract into the bloodstream.
Lycopene is not Water-Soluble and instantly stains any sufficiently porous material, including most plastics. While a tomato stain can be fairly easily removed from fabric (provided the stain is fresh), discolored plastic defies all efforts to drive out the lycopene with hot water, SOAP, or Detergent. (Bleach will destroy lycopene, however.) Plastics are especially susceptible to staining if heated, scratched, oiled, or pitted by acids (such as those found in tomatoes).
The Color of lycopene is due to its many conjugated double Carbon bonds (known as chromophores). Each double bond reduces the energy required for electrons to transition to higher energy states, allowing the Molecule to absorb visible light of progressively shorter wavelengths. Lycopene absorbs most of the visible spectrum, so it appears red.
If lycopene is oxidized (for example, by reacting with bleaches or acids), the double bonds between carbon atoms will be broken, cleaving the molecule into smaller molecules each double-bonded to an Oxygen atom. Although C=O bonds are also chromophoric, the much shorter molecules are unable to absorb enough light to appear colorful. A similar effect occurs if lycopene is reduced; reduction may saturate and join lycopene molecules, converting the double bonds to single bonds as a result.