There’s more to taste in a coloured bowl
Open accessAbstract
The flavour and pleasantness of food and drinks are affected by their colour, their texture or crunch, and even by the shape and weight of the plate or glass. But, can the colour of the bowl also affect the taste of the food it contains? To answer this question we served popcorn in four different coloured bowls, and participants rated sweetness, saltiness, and overall liking. The sweet popcorn, in addition to being sweet, was perceived as saltier when eaten out of a coloured (as compared to a white) bowl, and vice versa for the salty popcorn. These results demonstrate that colour in bowl design can be used to elicit perceptions of sweetness and saltiness in real foods.
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Salty popcorn is perceived as slightly but significantly sweeter when served in a red or blue bowl compared to a white bowl.
“Harrar et al. [54] reported that salty popcorn was perceived as slightly, but significantly, sweeter when served in a red or blue bowl, as compared to when presented in a white bowl.”
From The Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Sensory Factors in Sweetness Perception of Food and Beverages: A Review (2019) · cites this paper as [54]
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References 5 · Cited by 99
- Authors
- Harrar, V., Piqueras-Fiszman, B., & Spence, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Department of Engineering Projects, Universitat Politècnica de València, València, Spain
- Corresponding author
- Harrar, Vanessa
- Venue
- Perception
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-01-01
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 880-882
- ISSN
- 0301-0066 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-4233
- OpenAlex
- W1966711328
- Cited by
- 99
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 10.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- Locations
- Perception (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RiuNet (Universitat Politècnica de València) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Sensory Analysis and Statistical Methods
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Color perception and design
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Keywords
- food color, taste perception, sweetness perception, saltiness perception, plate design, food liking
- MeSH terms
- Color Perception, Female, Humans, Male, Taste Perception, Young Adult
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