In a psychological experiment conducted in the 70s, some participants tried a strong disgust After discovering, during a dinner in the dark, that I had eaten one blue steak. Some volunteers was served a shiny dinner under special lights that hid its true color. Initially, the participants appreciated the meal but when the normal lights were turned on halfway through the dinner, they discovered that the steak was of a heated blue trying a sense of disgust. The color of food, in fact, plays a crucial role in the perception of flavors, thanks to the influence that the visual areas of the brain They can have on those responsible for the perception of flavors. This mechanism that concerns taste, smell and view is widely exploited in marketingespecially in the confectionery sector, and it is also one of the reasons why we love smarties, skittles or Haribo candies so much.
Can the color of the food influence its flavor? The doubtful experiment of the blue steak
In the 70s of the last century a curious experiment was conducted to investigate how i colors of food could influence the perception of flavor. Some volunteers were invited to dinner with a menu based on steak, potatoes and peas. The peculiarity? The dinner took place in an enlightened room with lamps details, which made invisible The real color of the dishes. Initially, the participants tastefully ate the meal, appreciating their flavor. But at a certain point, in the middle of the dinner, the experimenters the normal lights caught of the room. The scene he presented left all stabbed: the meat it was not of its usual color, but of a blue bluesimilar to that of awaited meat.
The reaction was immediate: some dismissed to eat by considering the flavor of unpleasant meatothers, overwhelmed by the disgust, even came to vomit. Still, the color of the meat had been altered through a blue food coloringwho had not altered its flavor. Despite this, the simple color change was sufficient to change the perception of participantsmaking the meat, initially welcome, suddenly unpleasant and repugnant.
Although this is well known and mentioned, this experiment (of which There are no official publications) remains enveloped by methodological doubts and anecdotal reconstructions. However, he had the great merit of raising a fascinating question in the perception of food: can the color of food and drinks really alter the flavor of what we eat?
Is it true that “we eat with our eyes”? Our brain does not separate completely view and taste
Thanks to decades of research, today we know that the color of food and drinks can influence surprisingly the perception of their flavor. And it is not a simple suggestion. There view It is, for us human beings, a fundamental sense: it is to her that we rely on to explore the environment, understand its characteristics and make decisions. Just think that, according to some estimates, up to 50% from the cerebral cortex is involved directly or indirectly in theVisual information processing. The importance of these areas is such that, in addition to elaborating what we see, they can modular the activity of other brain regions, like those responsible for the perception of taste.
What does it mean, concretely? As soon as we look at a food, our brain already begins to formulate some expectations on its flavorbased on experience and on Associations learned between color and taste. For example, for us Italians, the yellow It is generally associated with lemon (harsh), the red strawberry or cherry (sweet), the brown chocolate (rich and sweet), etc.
Faced with a dish, this visual information is able to Activate in advanceeven before tasting, the gustatory areas of the braincreating expectations on the flavor. Then when we finally taste the food, if the flavor is consistent with expectation created by color (like a succulent slice of meat with a typical burnished color), the perception of taste can be more intense and satisfying. If, on the other hand, the color is incongruent (a slice of blue meat, rare shade in nature and often associated with putrefaction), the brain comes into conflict: the taste can be alteredless intense, or even unpleasant.
The color of food as a marketing strategy
Precisely on these mechanisms many are based Marketing strategies of food products. In fact, some studies have shown that the recognition of the tastes of artificially colored foods and drinks is strongly influenced by color. During an experiment, the researchers observed that when the participants saw the color of a drink they could more easily associate (and perceive) the right flavorbut when the drink was presented colorless (or with unusual colors), the precision in recognizing tastes dropped drastically. The color, in short,, Create the expectation of tastehelping to define the actual flavor. Without seeing red, for example, it is much more difficult to recognize the “strawberry” taste of many candies. And the same goes for many artificially flavored drinks.
But because many confectionery companies the candies color in many different wayseven when the tastes are similar or identical? In addition to creating a visual association with the flavor, varying the color of the candies sold in the same pack has another function. When our senses receive it same stimulus in a repeated waywe tend to get bored. Varying the colorseven if the taste remains identical, yes keeps attention and pleasure highpushing us to eat a candy after another. This is the reason why Smarties, Skittles and the like appear in a palette of bright colors: the chromatic variety allows us to savor them not only with the palate, but first of all with the gaze, making them irresistible.
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