COLOR EFFECTS IN FOODS

VI. COLOR EFFECTS IN FOODS

As was noted prior, the impact of colorant usage in foods has been known since ancient times. Controlled studies of the effects of color on flavor and food acceptance, however, have only been conducted during the past 70 years. One of the earliest studies was that of Moir (1936), who noted that ‘‘Many people find that their sense of taste is affected by the colour of the foodstuff to be tasted. They may give a totally wrong answer where delicate flavours are concerned as a result of being misled by their eyes.’’

Moir used both inappropriately colored jellies (yellow vanilla, green orange, amber lime, and red lemon) and brown-colored sponge cookies (one flavored with cocoa, the other with vanilla) to determine people’s abilities to correctly ascertain flavors. With re- gard to the jellies, only 1 person out of 60 correctly identified all four flavors; the majority of persons were only able to identify two or fewer flavors correctly.

Hall (1958), in a widely cited study, reported a similar experiment in which subjects were presented with appropriately, inappropriately, and white-colored sherbets. Similar to Moir’s findings, inappropriately or white-colored sherbets were poorly identified as to their true flavors. Hall concluded that flavor, unless ‘‘outstandingly good or bad’’ was ‘‘outweighed in importance by other factors, particularly by visual factors.’’ Hall’s conclu- sions are seemingly the source of the notion that color is of preeminent sensory importance,

a notion reflected in the apocryphal report of Wheatley (cited in Kostyla and Clydesdale, 1978) that diners were sickened by inappropriately colored food [a report relegated to the status of ‘‘food folklore’’ by Hutchings (1994)].

It is important, therefore, to note that Schutz (1954) reached a quite different conclu- sion in his study of color on orange juice preference. When subjects visually assessed preference, an orange-colored juice was preferred over a yellow-colored juice. However, when subjects assessed preference based upon tasting the products, there was no statisti- cally significant difference in preference. Schutz concluded that food preference based upon color alone was not indicative of true food preference: ‘‘We can conclude that al- though people may prefer one color juice to another on the basis of appearance alone, when they actually taste the juices, the color variable becomes insignificant in determining their preference ratings.’’

Hall (1958) had also obtained hedonic data, and found that within a flavor appropri- Hall (1958) had also obtained hedonic data, and found that within a flavor appropri-

This alternative hypothesis is supported by the research of Tuorila-Ollikainen (Tuor- ila-Ollikainen, 1982; Tuorila-Ollikainen et al., 1984). Tuorila-Ollikainen and coworkers found that the pleasantness of carbonated soft drinks depended primarily upon the flavor and sweetness; color had minimal influence. Clydesdale (1993) raised the objection that this lack of a color effect was due to the soft drinks not being identified by flavor, pointing out that in an earlier study (Tuorila-Ollikainen, 1982) color had been found to have a positive effect on soft drink pleasantness. However, this was only true when the product flavor was identified; when the flavor was unspecified color had no effect on pleasantness. Indeed, the colorless soft drink was rated as more pleasant than the appropriately colored sample.

Tuorila-Ollikainen’s studies further demonstrate the importance of context upon the magnitude of color’s effect upon acceptability judgments. Martens and coworkers (1983) also found that color played a significant role in preference of black currant juice when the color was modified from the expected color to a darker, more brown and less green juice. Similar results were obtained by Du Bose et al. (1980), who found that color affected acceptability when judgments were made within the context of the appropriateness of the color to a specified flavor; however, overall acceptability was more closely correlated to

a product’s flavor than a product’s color. Finally, in addition to influencing flavor identification and product acceptability, color may also affect both real and perceived nutritional value (Bender, 1981). Yellow- orangish fruits and vegetables are accurately identified as being high in carotenes; how- ever, with the exception of true whole-wheat bread, brown color is typically a poor indica- tor of nutritional value (e.g., brown eggs are no more nutritious than white eggs; brown sugar is no more nutritious than white sugar).