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: colour-experience@sdc.org.uk W: www.sdc.org.uk