Feasibility Analysis on the Extraction of Lycopene from Tomato Peel through Organic Synthesis

Artificial food colouring makes the foods more appealing and desirable, a tactic the food industry has been capitalising on for decades. One of the most used artificial food colouring is Carmine or E120 (Used in Nestle Nesquik, Rainbow Mentos, etc.) a pigment of a bright-red colour obtained from the aluminium salt of carminic acid, which is produced by some scale insects, such as the cochineal scale and the Polish cochineal, and is used as a general term for a particularly deep-red colour of the same name. While the safety of these dyes has been called into question, consumer advocacy groups and recent scientific research have linked these food dyes to a number of potential health problems, most notably, certain types of cancer in animals and attention-deficit disorder and hyperactivity in children. The link between artificial colours and behavioral problems is a concern, especially for parents of children diagnosed with ADHD.
LycoSOL extracts and formulate natural ingredients (nutraceuticals and phytochemicals) from the waste products of food processing, by using (i) biological, (ii) sustainable and (iii) environmentally friendly, novel processes to stop the use of synthetic food colouring, known to adversely affect the public health and replacing them by ingredients with major health benefits. BioCapSOL aims to provide an improved process for extracting and encapsulating biological content from plants and vegetables using benign chemistries that can be applied at an industrial scale. The LycoSOL extracts the carotenoids from waste by-products of tomato paste production through a 100% natural and low-cost production method.
LycoSOL is currently at TRL6 stage. The global market size for lycopene amounts to €113M in 2018 and the market is expected to grow annually by 3.5% (CAGR 2018-2023) is estimated to be more than €117M. BioCapSOL aims to achieve between the 5 to 10% of market share in the first five year from the commercialization launch.