On the psychological impact of food colour
TL;DR: In this article, a large body of laboratory research has demonstrated that changing the hue or intensity/saturation of the colour of food and beverage items can exert a sometimes dramatic impact on the expectations, and hence on the subsequent experiences, of consumers.
Abstract: Colour is the single most important product-intrinsic sensory cue when it comes to setting people’s expectations regarding the likely taste and flavour of food and drink. To date, a large body of laboratory research has demonstrated that changing the hue or intensity/saturation of the colour of food and beverage items can exert a sometimes dramatic impact on the expectations, and hence on the subsequent experiences, of consumers (or participants in the lab). However, should the colour not match the taste, then the result may well be a negatively valenced disconfirmation of expectation. Food colours can have rather different meanings and hence give rise to differing expectations, in different age groups, not to mention in different cultures. Genetic differences, such as in a person’s taster status, can also modulate the psychological impact of food colour on flavour perception. By gaining a better understanding of the sensory and hedonic expectations elicited by food colour in different groups of individuals, researchers are coming to understand more about why it is that what we see modulates the multisensory perception of flavour, as well as our appetitive and avoidance-related food behaviours.
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TL;DR: Investigating the current situation of scientific research on PBMA and determining future research opportunities, the driving forces for PBMA development, a brief history of its progression, key technologies required for production, and the resulting consumer attitudes are summarized are summarized.
Abstract: The topic of plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs) has been discussed for several decades, but it has only recently become one of the hottest topics in the food and research communities. With the purpose of investigating the current situation of scientific research on PBMA and determining future research opportunities, the driving forces for PBMA development, a brief history of its progression, key technologies required for production, and the resulting consumer attitudes are summarized. Environmental, human health, and animal welfare concerns are the main factors that have driven the development of PBMA. Although its history can trace back to ancient Asian civilizations, the first generation of PBMA originated in 1960s and a new generation of PBMA designed for carnivore was developed in recently years. Structuring methods such as extrusion and shear cell techniques have been widely studied, but improvements toward the overall appearance and flavor, biological and chemical safety control, as well as the selection of protein sources are also very important for PBMA production. The consumer acceptance of PBMA remains unsatisfactory but is continually improving. Based on those knowledge, future research opportunities include developing more effective strategies for consumer education, providing more scientific evidence for the health properties of PBMA, finding more suitable protein sources to improve the quality of the final products, improving the appearance and flavor, further examining and securing the chemical safety, exploring the structure formation mechanism during the extraction or shearing processes, and developing methods and standards for a quality evaluation of PBMA.
197 citations
TL;DR: Some of the innovative ways in which chefs, culinary artists, designers, and marketers are taking the latest insights from research in this area as inspiration for their own creative endeavours are looked at.
Abstract: Can basic tastes, such as sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and possibly also umami, be conveyed by means of colour? If so, how should we understand the relationship between colours and tastes: Is it universal or relative, innate or acquired, unidirectional or bidirectional? Here, we review the growing body of scientific research showing that people systematically associate specific colours with particular tastes. We highlight how these widely shared bidirectional crossmodal correspondences generalize across cultures and stress their difference from synaesthesia (with which they are often confused). The various explanations that have been put forward to account for such crossmodal mappings are then critically evaluated. Finally, we go on to look at some of the innovative ways in which chefs, culinary artists, designers, and marketers are taking—or could potentially push further—the latest insights from research in this area as inspiration for their own creative endeavours.
146 citations
TL;DR: Results showed that perceived behavioral control is the main predictor of the intention, followed by neophobia and personal insect food rejection, and the disgust factor significantly decreased after the participants attended the informative seminar.
Abstract: This study provides a framework of the factors predicting the intention of eating an insect-based product. As part of the study, a seminar was carried out to explore how the provision of information about ecological, health, and gastronomic aspects of entomophagy would modify consumer beliefs regarding insects as food. Before and after the informative seminar, two questionnaires about sociodemographic attributes and beliefs about the consumption of insects as food were given. Participants were then asked to carry out a sensory evaluation of two identical bread samples, but one was claimed to be supplemented with insect powder. Results showed that perceived behavioral control is the main predictor of the intention, followed by neophobia and personal insect food rejection. The disgust factor significantly decreased after the participants attended the informative seminar. Sensory scores highlighted that participants gave “insect-labelled” samples higher scores for flavor, texture, and overall liking, nevertheless, participants indicated that they were less likely to use the “insect-labelled” bread in the future. Our findings provide a better understanding of insect food rejection behavior and help to predict the willingness to try insect-based products based on some important individual traits and information.
111 citations
TL;DR: There is a growing body of scientifically credible research that the colour of the background against which food and drink is served affects both people's perception of it, and also their serving and consumption behaviour as well as mentioned in this paper.
104 citations
01 Nov 2017-International Journal of Human-computer Studies \/ International Journal of Man-machine Studies
TL;DR: This review, with the focus squarely on the domain of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), summarizes the state-of-the-art in the area and suggests that mixed reality solutions are currently the most plausible as far as delivering flavour experiences digitally is concerned.
Abstract: Review paper assesses the possibilities and pitfalls around the digitization of the chemical senses.Possibilities include delivery of ambient fragrance, digital flavour experiences.We highlight how the majority of the attempts at successful commercialization have failed, often in the face of consumer ambivalence over the perceived benefits/utility.Ultimately, we suggest that mixed reality solutions are currently the most plausible as far as delivering (or rather modulating) flavour experiences digitally is concerned.The identify key problems with digital fragrance delivery related to attention and attribution (i.e., being aware of stimulation and believing that it is doing the work). Many people are understandably excited by the suggestion that the chemical senses can be digitized; be it to deliver ambient fragrances (e.g., in virtual reality or health-related applications), or else to transmit flavour experiences via the internet. However, to date, progress in this area has been surprisingly slow. Furthermore, the majority of the attempts at successful commercialization have failed, often in the face of consumer ambivalence over the perceived benefits/utility. In this review, with the focus squarely on the domain of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), we summarize the state-of-the-art in the area. We highlight the key possibilities and pitfalls as far as stimulating the so-called lower senses of taste, smell, and the trigeminal system are concerned. Ultimately, we suggest that mixed reality solutions are currently the most plausible as far as delivering (or rather modulating) flavour experiences digitally is concerned. The key problems with digital fragrance delivery are related to attention and attribution. People often fail to detect fragrances when they are concentrating on something else; And even when they detect that their chemical senses have been stimulated, there is always a danger that they attribute their experience (e.g., pleasure) to one of the other senses this is what we call the fundamental attribution error. We conclude with an outlook on digitizing the chemical senses and summarize a set of open-ended questions that the HCI community has to address in future explorations of smell and taste as interaction modalities
97 citations
References
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TL;DR: The nervous system seems to combine visual and haptic information in a fashion that is similar to a maximum-likelihood integrator, and this model behaved very similarly to humans in a visual–haptic task.
Abstract: When a person looks at an object while exploring it with their hand, vision and touch both provide information for estimating the properties of the object. Vision frequently dominates the integrated visual-haptic percept, for example when judging size, shape or position, but in some circumstances the percept is clearly affected by haptics. Here we propose that a general principle, which minimizes variance in the final estimate, determines the degree to which vision or haptics dominates. This principle is realized by using maximum-likelihood estimation to combine the inputs. To investigate cue combination quantitatively, we first measured the variances associated with visual and haptic estimation of height. We then used these measurements to construct a maximum-likelihood integrator. This model behaved very similarly to humans in a visual-haptic task. Thus, the nervous system seems to combine visual and haptic information in a fashion that is similar to a maximum-likelihood integrator. Visual dominance occurs when the variance associated with visual estimation is lower than that associated with haptic estimation.
4,142 citations
"On the psychological impact of food..." refers background in this paper
...According to the maximum likelihood account of multisensory integration [149], the perceptual estimate with the lower variance will likely be weighted more heavily when it comes to estimating a given stimulus attribute....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a flow chart for the role of expectations at the point of choice and in influencing sensory perception at the time of consumption, showing that expectations are generated by a variety of factors.
Abstract: Expectations are generated by a variety of factors. We indicate a flow chart for the role of expectations at the point of choice and in influencing sensory perception at the time of consumption. We review the sparse literature on how advertising, packaging and information generate sensory expectations. The application of various theories to explain the observed effects of sensory expectations are reviewed. There is overwhelming evidence for assimilation-contrast effect, although no studies have been specifically designed to detect it. Finally we review the reasons why individuals might differ in the way that expectations influence sensory perception. These reasons include ideas from persuasion literature and private body consciousness. A number of behavioral hypothesis that follow from these theories are developed.
645 citations
"On the psychological impact of food..." refers background in this paper
...A growing body of scientific research now suggests that our experience of taste and flavour is determined to a large degree by the expectations that we generate (often automatically) prior to tasting [19-21]....
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TL;DR: The anthocyanins have a long history as part of the human diet, these and other flavonoids, are receiving renewed attention for their positive health attributes as discussed by the authors, and the principal commercially available Anthocyanin food colorants, grape, elderberry, red cabbage and roselle, are considered and others mentioned Factors affecting the usage of extracts, in terms of colour hue and stability are discussed Chemical aspects of anthophyanin colour are summarised briefly and the advantages of acylation for color durability noted as a promising area for future development Special emphasis is placed
592 citations
"On the psychological impact of food..." refers background in this paper
...A less extreme reaction to concerns over artificial food colourings has been to search out natural colourings that better match the sensory properties desired by the food producers: This includes everything from trying to deliver a wide enough range of natural colours [117], through to improving the stability of natural colourings, at least for those products that are likely to have a long shelf life [118-120]....
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TL;DR: A review of the use of colour in the food industry can be found in this article, where the authors address the question of the future of colours in the next decade and present a list of permitted synthetic colours.
Abstract: Summary Colour in one form or another, has been added to our foods for centuries. It is known that the Egyptians coloured candy, and wine was coloured as long ago as 400 bc. The developing food industry had available a vast array of synthetic colours in the late 1800s. This led to colours being added for decorative purposes and unfortunately to disguise low quality foods. There was no control over this use of colour and so inevitably legislation came into force. In particular this was as a result of health concerns over some of the toxic compounds used. An established list of permitted synthetic colours eventually came into force in most countries early in this century. In the last twenty years however, consumers have become increasingly aware of the ingredients in their foods and as such they require foods to be as ‘natural’ as possible. This combined with technological developments has fuelled the increase in the usage of naturally derived colours. Today the food industry has an extensive colour palette available, allowing selection of the most suitable colour for their application requirements. Legislation is also in place to protect the consumer. Colour suppliers are however constantly striving to improve the technical and physical properties of their colour portfolio, to make the use of colour easier, to improve the stability and to meet customer demands on the functional additives used within colour formulations. This paper will review all colours in terms of recent developments and regulations as well as addressing the question of the future of colours in the next millennium.
556 citations
"On the psychological impact of food..." refers background in this paper
...There is a very long history of colouring being added to food and drink [11-13]....
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TL;DR: Results suggest that the above perceptual illusion occurs during the verbalization phase of odor determination, which is confirmed by a psychophysical experiment and recent psychophysical and neuroimaging data.
541 citations
"On the psychological impact of food..." refers background in this paper
...In one oft-cited experiment, Morrot and his colleagues [144] reported that a group of students on a university wine course in Bordeaux, France, had been fooled into choosing red wine aroma descriptors when given a white wine to evaluate that had been artificially...
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