In recent cell culture studies with human endothelial cells we have shown that tomato ketchup exerts significant anti-inflammatory effects, which could be related to the particular composition of antioxidants, i.e. lycopene, ascorbic acid and α-tocopherol. Since, however, the relevance of the observed anti-inflammatory effects for humans is entirely unknown, the present pilot study aims to assess the acute effects of a single tomato ketchup consumption on ex vivo elicited inflammation in a small group of healthy volunteers.