Tomato seeds, a by-product of tomato processing (cannery, tomato paste, tomato juice, etc.), contain about 20-25% of an edible oil rich in linoleic acid (50-60%) and cholesterol (Lazos et al., 1998; Giannelos et al., 2005; Gunstone, 2006). The development of tomato processing in Italy and in the USA at the turn of the twentieth century led to an interest in tomato oil for soap-making and cooking, and in the use of tomato seed cake, the by-product of the oil extraction, in feeds and fertilizer (Rabak, 1917). Today, tomato seeds are usually mixed with the skins and pulp residue to make tomato pomace, and tomato seed oil has become a niche product, used notably in cosmetics. In recent years, there has been a renewed interest both in tomato seed oil for its nutraceutical properties and as a biofuel (Lazos et al., 1998; Giannelos et al., 2005), and in the protein of the seed cake, which is rich in lysine, and, when added to bread, improves loaf volume, texture and crumb quality, due to its anti-staling properties (Sogi et al., 2005).
