The food industry including meat sector provide a great diversity on the food market. The growing consumer demand for meat products is leading meat producers to apply innovative processing technologies and to improve their nutritional value by adding plant ingredients rich in bioactive compounds. Many different plant materials can be a source of bioactive substances, but the by-products of food industry are of particular interest. Food processing produces huge amounts of by-products, which contains several bioactive compounds. Thus, food by-products are a renewable and potential source of natural additives, which could be used in meat industry, following the preferences of consumers. The by-products of tomatoes, which include both peel and seeds, are widely recognized as health-promoting foods. They are rich in multiple compounds with antioxidant properties such as carotenes (lycopene, β-carotene, phytoene, phytofluene and lutein), phenolic compounds (phenolic acids and flavonoids), vitamins (ascorbic acid and vitamin A). The aim of the study was to compare the effects of the conventional drying and freeze drying process on the physicochemical parameters, content of selected bioactive components and antioxidant properties of the pomace of two tomato varieties. Tomato pomace (dried at 65°C and freeze-dried) has been subjected to analyzes covering: color parameters (CIE L*a*b*), water activity, the content of carotenoids including lycopene and β-carotene and the antioxidant properties (2,2-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity). Depending on the type of plant raw materials, the dried tomato pomace showed a relatively high content of bioactive substances and an antioxidant activity. The raw materials showed low water activity ranging from 0. 053 to 0. 260. The results of the studies suggest that tomato by-products could be used in meat industry in order to prevent oxidative degradation and the production of a “functional” meat products, enriched in bioactive compounds which brings multiple health benefits.