Assessing the influence of the color of the plate on the perception of a complex food in a restaurant setting
Open accessAbstract
Nowadays, more and more importance is given to how restaurant dishes are visually presented. With regard to the color of the plate, several recent studies have demonstrated that identical foods served on plates (or in containers) of different colors are often perceived differently at both the sensorial and hedonic levels. However, to date, these effects have not been tested in an ecologically valid setting with a range of more complex foods in order to assess the generalizability of the findings. The aims of the present study were to test the extent to which the color of the plate may influence the gustatory and hedonic experiences of a complex food. Specifically, we investigated diners’ perception of three desserts served on a white or black plate in a between-participants experimental design in a real restaurant setting. The results demonstrated that the color of the plate exerted a significant influence on people’s perception of the food, but that this effect varied as a function of the type of dessert served. The effects cannot be explained only in terms of color contrast. Color-flavor associations, for example, black with intense chocolate flavor, or even sophisticated chocolate, could have an impact too. Interestingly, the perceptual pattern for each dessert was constant for each plate used; that is, for all of the attributes rated, the higher scores were obtained with the same plate, for all of the desserts. These results confirm the importance of the color of the plate (or background color) on people’s expectation and perception of food, even in realistic and less controlled conditions, such as that of a restaurant.
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Pinkish-red strawberry mousse is rated roughly 15% sweeter when served on a white plate than on a black plate.
“Meanwhile, in another study, a pinkish-red strawberry mousse was rated as tasting roughly 15% sweeter when served on a white plate than when served on a black plate [8,55].”
From The Role of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Sensory Factors in Sweetness Perception of Food and Beverages: A Review (2019) · cites this paper as [55]
The Background (page unavailable) reports that a prior study found strawberry mousse tasted significantly sweeter on a white plate than on a black plate. It gives no percentage, so this source does not support the claimed roughly 15% difference; its own Sweetness intensity results concern different desserts. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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References 37 · Cited by 91
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Spence C: The color of wine -Part 1. The World of Fine Wine 2010, 28:122-129.
- Guéguen N: The effect of glass color on the evaluation of a beverage's thirst-quenching quality. Curr Psychol Lett Brain Behav Cogn 2003, 11:1-6.
- Authors
- Piqueras-Fiszman, B., Giboreau, A., & Spence, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- ORCID
- Spence, Charles
- Venue
- Flavour
- Published
- 2013-08-23
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 2044-7248 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2116714775
- Cited by
- 91
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 6.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Flavour (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (acceptedVersion)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Sensory Analysis and Statistical Methods
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Color perception and design
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Culinary Culture and Tourism
- Keywords
- plate color, food coloration, food presentation, visual perception of food, color contrast, taste perception, hedonic perception, desserts, chocolate
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