Abstract: The stabilities of food thickening agent layering and the lycopene luster darkening during production and storage were studied. The stability effects of the single stabilizers are in the following ranking order: agar>xanthan gum>CMC-Na and the mouthfeel effects of stabilizers: agar>CMC-Na>xanthan gum. The orthogonal tests showed that when used as mixed thickening (0.05% xanthan gum and 0.1% agar together in mass mixture), the stability of the beverage is the best. The lycopene is much stable against heat with low heating loss at 100 ℃, but is unstable under the effects of strong sunlight for 1 h that the remains drop to 36.7%. The 0.06% tea polyphenol and 0.08% VC added respectively show good protection effects on lycopene. The optimal processing parameters for raw tomato juice, sugar, composite thickening agent, citric acid, VC and tea polyphenol obtained from orthogonal tests are 30%, 8%, 0.15%, 0.013% and 0.02%, respectively.

Key words: tomato juice, lycopene, stability