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within the fruit. In this study, we investigated the activity of the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) harvesting process. Moreover, carotenoids serve as signals in the as antioxidants and, more importantly, as precursors of vitamin A (retinol) and its derivatives retinal and retinoic acid [4,5]. This C40-compound contains only three conjugated double bonds merization reac-iates phytofluene, ans-lycope ble bonds carotene th be hydroxylated to form zeaxanthin and lutein, respectivel xanthin is the precursor of violaxanthin and neoxanth review, see [1–4,8]. Due to the presence of a conjugated double bond system, carotenoids are susceptible to oxidative cleavage that yields car-bonyl products, generally referred to as apocarotenoids. Some of the apocarotenoids fulfill important environmental, physiological or developmental functions, immediately or after being structur-ally modified by other types of enzymes [9–12]. The group of apoc-arotenoids with known biological function includes retinoids, the Abbreviations: CCD, carotenoid cleavage dioxygenas