Drying characteristics and lycopene degradation kinetics of tomato soup

•Different drying methods were performed to dry the tomato soup (TS).•The drying kinetics of TS was studied with effective moisture diffusion (Deff).•The lycopene of TS followed the first-order degradation kinetics (R2>0.95).•The lycopene degradation of TS has adduced a higher value of activation energy.•Vacuum-microwave drying showed the best technique for drying of TS.