Scientists and marketing gurus alike have long known colour can affect how we perceive food. To test how plate colour might affect perception, a team of researchers served up strawberry mousse on white or black plates to a pool of 53 volunteers. The volunteers were to identify and rate the sweetness, intensity of its taste and in general rate how much they enjoyed it.
Similarly, the researchers served two types of popcorn in four different coloured bowls. In this case the volunteers were told to rate sweetness, saltiness, and overall liking.
White dishes scored high on all points in both. However research leader Betina Piqueras-Fiszman says that it is most likely that the research findings are less about white and more about different dishes being complemented by different colours.
Piqueras-Fiszman also conducted a study in order to explore how the cutlery, specifically two teaspoons (a plastic one with metallic finish and a stainless steel one), affected consumers' sensory and hedonic perception of yoghurt. “Consumers' quality and liking judgments concerning identical yoghurt samples differed significantly when tasted either with a metallic plastic spoon or else with a stainless steel spoon, the latter resulting in significantly higher scores,” she writes.
She also tried the experiments with different shapes of plates but found this to have no bearing on perceived taste.
Piqueras-Fiszman says that the findings of her research are relevant to product development and to caterers and restaurateurs because different dishes (i.e., foodstuffs/flavors) could be matched with different types of cutlery [and tableware] in order to increase convenience and, at the same, time potentially enhance the consumers' eating experience. Zooming in to hospitality in India, crystal tableware manufacturer Schott Zwiesel has plans to run blind tastings to prove that beverages, especially wine, taste better in their glasses.
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