colour experience
educational resources
Colour & Food
Colour & Food
Have you ever thought about why you like certain coloured
foods or drinks?
Or why, certain colours make you think they have a horrible
taste?
Do you associate certain colours with particular flavours?
How much does the colour of our food affect what we taste?
Read on and find out why...
Evolution & Colour Vision
It is thought that our colour vision evolved as a result of our need to find
food. Most fruit changes colour when it's ready to eat - being able to
spot that colour change means our ancient ancestors were better
equipped to eat healthily and therefore survive.
Finding food with no colour vision (known as monochromats
e.g. dolphins, snakes and rats).
Finding food with defective colour vision or two-colour vision
(known as dichromats e.g. dogs, cats and horses)
Finding food with good colour vision or three-colour vision
(trichromats e.g. humans, monkeys and tortoises)
Tetrachromats are able to differentiate colours outside the
visible spectrum such as ultraviolet or infrared (e.g. many
species of fish, birds and insects)
Blue Food
Which of these plates of food look the most appetising?
Why do you think this is?
For the majority of people the blue plate of food would seem the most
unappetising. The reason for this is that humans have developed an
aversion to blue food because of the association with mould. Therefore,
we are conditioned to avoid blue food as it could be bad for us and
make us unwell.
However, there are some exceptions with the introduction of food and
drinks that have been artificially coloured blue (e.g. Smarties and M&Ms)
and many people now think a blue coloured drink will taste of raspberry.
There are not many naturally occurring blue foods either; even the
colour of blueberries is closer to purple.
Can you think of any blue foods?
Taste Sensation
You may think that our experience of flavour
comes entirely from our taste buds but the sight
and smell of our food plays a big part too. In
fact, our brain experiences and perceives ‘taste’
through all three senses. We take our first bite
with the eye, making a judgement as to whether
we think the food or drink looks appetising,
usually based on the colour as this can indicate
how fresh or sweet they may taste.
The smell of our food can impact greatly on our experience of flavour
and sometimes when you remove it, your taste experience changes
completely. This can often be the reason why when you have a cold
that food seems to taste a bit funny because you can’t smell it properly.
Try taking a jar of cinnamon from the
cupboard. Put a little on your finger and
taste it. Try this again but this time hold
your nostrils while you taste it. You
should find that the cinnamon taste
disappears when you cover your nose, as
our experience of the ‘taste’ of cinnamon
is almost entirely in its smell.
Did you know that some people have very advanced and heightened
senses, whereby experiencing one sense will stimulate another? This
phenomenon is called synesthesia and is very rare.
Some synesthetes experience colours as certain flavours, so when they
see the colour blue they could also experience the taste of sausage.
There are also synesthetes for whom specific smells will trigger
visualising a particular colour.
Enhancers in Food
Processed foods often have colours added to them to replace the
colours they have lost due to cooking and manufacture and to make
them more appetising. It is not just processed foods that have their
colours altered. Our association with vibrant colours and fresh, natural
foods has led many food producers to add coloured dyes to enhance
their natural colour and make them appear even fresher.
Red Dye
Apples, fresh strawberries and red potatoes are sometimes sprayed with
red dye to enhance their redness and oranges can be dipped in red dye
to make them appear more orange.
Yellow Dye
Green foods, like pickles, sometimes have yellow dye added to enhance
their green colour. Guacamole dip which is made from avocado
sometimes has blue and yellow dye added to it to make the avocado
look greener.
Blue Dye
As you read earlier there aren’t many blue foods but some fruits have a
little blue in them such blueberries, strawberries, cherries and red
delicious apples so blue dye is added to bring out that colour.
Heinz EZ Squirt Ketchup
Changing the colour of a popular food product can sometimes have an
impact on how successful it is. Back in 2000, Heinz decided to give its
most famous brand a makeover by introducing coloured tomato ketchup
as a way of appealing to younger children. Brightly coloured ketchups of
green, purple, blue, teal, orange and pink were introduced with names
like Blastin’ Green, Funky Purple and Awesome Orange.
While the novelty of the new ketchup was
initially a huge success, it didn’t last long
because while kids loved the product it was
their mums who bought it. They began to
question how healthy these multi-coloured
ketchups were with all the additional food
colourings which also altered the classic taste
slightly. Despite adding an additional 20%
Vitamin C to boost its health credentials, the
EZ Squirt line was discontinued in 2006.
Another reason for its failure was that it really
didn’t look very appetising either.
What do you think?
About SDC and the colour experience
The SDC is the world’s leading independent, educational charity
dedicated to advancing the science and technology of colour worldwide.
Established in 1884, we have been representing our members and our
industry for over 100 years. The SDC is a professional, chartered society
and a global organisation.
Through the colour experience SDC works directly with schools, colleges
and universities delivering educational workshops, activities and
presentations either at our dedicated facility in Bradford or on an
outreach basis.
We are continually looking at innovative ways to engage and educate
people of all ages across the globe about our fascinating world of colour.
We have a number of free educational learning and teaching resources
available to download on the education section of our website.
Contact details
To find out more about the colour experience, please get in touch
T: 01274 725138 (option 3)
E: [email protected]
W: www.sdc.org.uk