Does the appearance of food affect how we think it taste?

By: Callie Caudle

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After researching whether the appearance of food affects how someone thinks it taste, an article showed that even professional chefs consider appearance as an essential part of their presentation. The mind makes up an opinion of the food before even eating it based on prior experiences of eating like foods. Also, all of your senses work together to decide how something is going to taste based on sight, smell, taste and texture.

Research

I think the experiment will show that the color or appearance of food will affect the taste when not blindfolded, but will not affect the taste when blindfolded.

Hypothesis

• 3 clear cups
• 2 colors of food grade dye
• 1 ½ cups of a light colored beverage
• 2 assistants
• 2 blindfolds
• Measuring Cup
• 2 plastic spoons

Materials Needed

1. Add ½ cup of beverage chosen to each cup. (For this experiment, I will be using orange juice as the control beverage.)
2. Add 3 drops of the first color dye to the first cup. Add 3 drops of the remaining color dye to another cup. The last cup will remain as the control.
3. Using a different spoon for each cup, stir the dye until mixed.
4. Allow the assistants to taste each one and rate them 1 to 5 based on taste with 1 tasting the worst and 5 being the best.
5. Blindfold both assistants and repeat the process recording the results as you go.

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Experiment

No Blindfold

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Blindfolded

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Results

The appearance of the orange juice did affect the way the assistants thought it tasted. When blindfolded, they thought they were similar in taste, but not exactly the same. It is possible that the dye may somewhat affect the taste, but not drastically enough to make a difference.

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Conclusion

https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/taste-buds.html. (November 11, 2020)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/does-the-way-we-see-food-affect-taste_b_1872204. (November 11, 2020)

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Bibliography