Some foods taste better or worse than they look, but in some cases, the color of the food could be playing tricks on your mind. As remarkable as it sounds, you may perceive the food’s flavor differently based on its colors alone.
Because of this, some companies add specific colors to their food to make it look more appealing and to change people’s taste perceptions.
Color Plays a Huge Role in Our Food
Whether we realize it or not, we frequently assume what food will taste like based on color. Some assumptions are universal, while others could be based on each person’s experience. For example, most people agree that red/pink hues are often associated with something sweet. Yet, if someone once had red-colored food that tasted terrible, they may hesitate to try new red foods because they think it’ll taste awful, too.
Food colors can have different meanings. We learn this as kids without even realizing it. From a young age, we start experiencing a variety of food flavors. Depending on the colors of the foods we eat, we may use the memories of those flavors to guess what future foods will taste like. This is one of the reasons we can determine if new foods look good or not, even if we’ve never tried them.
Psychological Aspects of Food Colors
Food’s color could impact our perception in the following ways:
- Taste – Flavor is the most common way color impacts food. When we look at a food, we often know how it will taste based on the colors involved. If food tastes different than expected, our expectations could still influence our taste. A sour food that we perceive as sweet could still seem somewhat sweet to us even if the food we’re eating is sour. Sometimes, an unexpected taste may shift how we view food of that color, but often, our expectations override the food’s true flavor.
- Enjoyment – Most people favor certain colored foods, such as how most people have a favorite color jelly bean or fruit snack. If food is in a color we love, we may be more likely to enjoy other foods of that color. For example, if a red food tastes bland but someone normally loves red food, they may perceive the food as better than it actually is.
- Favoritism – Not only will we enjoy our favorite food colors more, but we tend to gravitate toward them as well. If you’re at a buffet and there are a variety of food colors to choose from, you’ll likely pick colors you have good flavor associations with, even if they don’t seem as good in quality.
- Fullness – Finally, color may affect how much food you eat. Certain colors may be easier to eat in large quantities, while you could get sick of other colors faster. For many people, having a variety of colors makes it easier to eat a lot at once because they won’t get bored with one flavor. That could be why brands like Skittles and M&Ms come in packs of various colors.
Testing Food and Color Correlation
While the above factors make sense in theory, researchers have studied this topic to find a more definite answer. One study from the Journal of Food Science in 1980 tested how well people could identify drink flavors without color.
For one of the experiments, the people wore red goggles in a room with red lighting, making all four fruit-flavored drinks in front of them look very similar. The subjects had identified the drink flavors with 100% accuracy in normal lighting conditions, but they struggled a bit with this test. 70% of them guessed the grape-flavored drink correctly, but only 20% got the orange-flavored drink right.
In another test, the drink flavors each had a color different from what they normally would be. As a result, the subjects frequently guessed the flavors based on the color rather than the flavor. For example, many people thought the cherry-flavored drink tasted like orange because it was colored orange.
Studies like this one prove that colors can sway our taste. Some people rely on food colors more than others, but most people will perceive food differently to some extent based on the hues associated with it.
How We Perceive Taste Based on Colors
Why do we taste foods differently with different colors? Does our brain’s perception really have that much power over our other senses? According to Charles Spence, the head of Oxford University’s Crossmodal Research Laboratory, it’s all about our neurological activity.
The cerebral cortex, a part of the brain that carries out essential functions, only uses 1% to 2% of its abilities to focus on taste. For context, about 50% of the cerebral cortex is dedicated to vision. So, our brains can be much more easily swayed when it comes to taste than other senses. Our brains use visual information to help us decipher tastes, and a big part of the food’s appearance is the color.
When we see food of a certain color, our brain looks back at the flavors we associate that color with. If you’ve had that exact food before, you will probably have an accurate guess as to what the food will taste like. Yet, if it’s a dish you’ve never had before, your brain will look for past experiences to help you guess the food’s taste.
For example, if you associate red apples with being sweet, you will typically assume a red apple tastes sweet when you look at it. However, if you bite into it and it’s sour or bruised, the difference in taste versus expectation could be shocking. To compensate for that drastic shift, our brains may trick us into thinking it’s sweeter than it really is.
Unique Colored Foods Rarely Work
Sometimes, companies will release unique colors of popular foods as promotional tactics. Even though these products taste the same, the shift in appearance will be jarring to many people. Customers may think the products taste worse because of how their brain perceives the colors.
For example, Burger King famously released a burger with a black bun for Halloween. While it was the same product dyed black, it didn’t look appealing to most customers because black is usually associated with being burnt when it comes to food. In another instance, Heinz released green ketchup when Shrek came out. Many people had mixed feelings about it, likely because they assumed it would be sour or taste like green vegetables instead of tomatoes.
Eliminating Color Could Make Tastes Confusing
When color is removed from foods, it’s harder for people to determine the taste. A man who developed cerebral achromatopsia (a type of color blindness) after a car crash explained that food wasn’t the same after he stopped seeing colors. He said that tomatoes now look black instead of red, so they don’t taste right when he eats them. The same is true for all vibrant food, so he tries to stick to a neutral-colored diet to prevent confusion.
However, this only seems true for people who were once able to see color, not those who have always been visually impaired. For the man mentioned above, his mind kept trying to associate food with the colors he previously saw. Yet, if someone has never seen the colors of their food, they have nothing to compare it to. So, they may focus more on their sense of smell when determining what new foods will taste like.
Packaging and Plates Matter Too
The food itself isn’t the only color that affects our perception. The colors surrounding the food, such as the packaging and plates, could also make food taste more or less appealing. For example, popcorn may taste saltier in white packaging or a white bowl because white is associated with the color of salt.
While not related to the flavor itself, certain colors could also increase or decrease your desire to eat the food. High-energy colors like red and yellow seem to increase someone’s appetite. Thus, if you place food on a bright red plate, you might eat more because the color of the plate makes you think you’re hungrier than you are. On the contrary, a blue plate might decrease your appetite because blue is rarely a natural color in food.
Food Companies Use Color to Their Advantage
Many food companies, such as manufacturers and restaurants, are very familiar with the association between color and taste. So, they may use this information to their advantage. Food at the grocery store is often packaged in bright colors to catch your attention, and fast food chains frequently use the color red to stimulate appetite.
While some colors stand out more than others, most companies ensure their food has the colors customers expect. That’s why so many drinks are colored according to flavor. Even if they don’t need coloring to taste good, the color still helps us perceive the drink’s flavor. If one company sold food colored differently than the norm, it likely wouldn’t sell as well because our brains would tell us that something didn’t taste right.
Color psychology and food go hand-in-hand for most people. We often don’t even realize we’re perceiving food based on color. It’s just part of how our brains and senses operate. But now that you know, consider the connection between the food you like or dislike and its colors, and see if you can spot a pattern.
