Feast for the Eyes: Consuming Colour’ // Aralia Maxwell

“Beauty will be edible, or it no longer will be.” -Salvador Dalí, “Concerning the Terrifying and Edible Beauty of Art Nouveau…,” 1933

Food is necessary for human existence. We eat for our health, but we also eat for our pleasure. A colourless plate of food, healthy or not, is unappealing to most. We have been altering food colours for centuries, for myriad reasons. Scientists have demonstrated that food colour manipulation has the ability to skew the perceived flavours, textures, and aromas of food. The presence of colour creates an expectation for how the food will be, thus influencing our anticipation and our overall experience of consuming.

Our food preferences have been linked to genetics, learned cultural behaviours, and environmental stimuli, but many scientific studies have also concluded that experiences with food are determined by the expectations visually generated before tasting. Kantha Shelke, a food chemist at the Institute of Food Technologists, maintains that: “Colour creates a psychological expectation for a certain flavour that is often impossible to dislodge … Colour can actually override the other parts of the eating experience.” [1] In other words, colour can trigger more than merely visual sensation; it can skew our whole sensorial experience of food.

To expand upon the idea of how learned colour preferences affect consumption, consider neurologist, Oliver Sacks’ writing, “The Case of a Colourblind Painter.” In this essay Sacks describes the experience of a man who unexpectedly and abruptly becomes colourblind:

He found foods disgusting in their greyish, dead appearance and had to close his eyes to eat. But this did not help very much, for the mental image of a tomato was as black as its appearance. … The ‘wrongness’ of everything was disturbing, even disgusting, and applied to every circumstance of daily life. Thus, unable to rectify even the inner image, the idea, of various foods, he turned increasingly to black and white foods—to black olives and white rice, black coffee and yogurt. These at least appeared relatively normal, whereas most foods, normally coloured, now appeared horribly abnormal. [2]

Without colour, the man becomes physically repulsed and unable to consume the common colourful foods which he once enjoyed. The fact that the man chooses foods which are

typically black or white in colour indicates that foods deemed to be their appropriate colour are preferred.

In another noteworthy study conducted in 1974, human association with food colour was tested in a dinner party format. Psychologist Charles Spence describes the meal in the following passage:

[Guests] were invited to dine on a meal of steak, chips, and peas. The only thing that may have struck any of the diners as odd was how dim the lighting was. However, this aspect of the atmosphere was actually designed to help hide the food’s true colour. Part-way through the meal, the lighting was returned to normal, revealing that the steak had been artificially coloured blue, the chips looked green, and the peas had been coloured red. A number of [guests] suddenly felt ill when the lighting was turned to normal levels, with several of them apparently heading straight for the bathroom. [3]

This description outlines the association between colour and perceived edibleness or even digestibility of food.

Humans have been altering the appearance of food for millennia. Ancient Egyptians were known to colour candies; similarly, during Roman times, Celts would enhance the colour of their wines. [4] [5] Indeed, around the world, the past and present use of natural colourants such as saffron, egg yolk, annatto, beetroot, squid ink, paprika, turmeric, and other herbs and spices to enhance visual and gustatory appeal is well documented.

Healthful natural dyes such the ones listed may relate to the biological necessity for nutrition. Certainly, it is not uncommon to hear of dietary recommendations that emphasize colour vibrancy. Dr. Michelle Hauser, a certified chef, nutritionist and clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School tells us that when it comes to plant-based foods, it is beneficial to “eat all the colors of the rainbow,” stating that, “These colors signal the presence of diverse phytochemicals and phytonutrients.” [6] These vibrant substances not only appeal to the eye but also provide a wide range of nutrients and vitamins necessary for a healthy diet.

Marketers, aware that the average consumer assesses colour vibrancy as an indication of nutritional value, may artificially enhance their products accordingly. A primary reason to colour food is to give it the appearance of freshness. With consumer demand for products which have longer a shelf life, added colour can disguise browning, greying, or other unappealing signs associated with degradation. Plant-based foods especially are subject to degradative reactions during handling, processing, or storage. Colour can also be added to 50

make a fruit seem riper. Ai Hisano, a business and marketing historian, describes the emergence of citrus fruit dyeing in the United States:

During the early 1930s, Florida citrus growers began to colour orange skins by soaking the fruit in synthetic colour solutions, to make the fruit look ripe. Certain varieties grown in the state ripened without a change in skin colour, due to the warm climate. Growers strongly believed that oranges with green skins would not sell on the national market even if the fruit was ripe inside. By the 1940s, the so-called colour-add process had been widely adopted in Florida. During the 1946–1947 season, twenty-one million out of thirty million boxes of fresh oranges shipped out of state were coloured with synthetic dyes. [7]

This practice of dyeing fruits and vegetables continues today, proving that our perception of what naturalness looks like is easily fooled. When one considers the long journey produce must take to get to the grocery store, it should be no surprise that the industry has developed tricks such as dyeing orange skins, coating apples in wax, or spritzing lettuce with water to evoke a vision of perfect freshness.

While added colourants such as those natural varieties previously listed are largely safe for consumption, throughout history the addition of toxic ingredients to enhance colour has also been common. In Medieval England, white bread made from refined flour was preferred by the elite. For the lower classes, bakers would often produce a cheaper version which contained lime, chalk, or even crushed bones to attain the desired white colour. [8]

Similarly, when global trade expanded in the 16th and 17th centuries, new exotic foods such as tea, coffee, chocolate, and spices were regularly supplemented with colourful, but toxic substances to extend product quantities, as well as improve appearance. [9] For instance, tea was reportedly contaminated with iron filings, clay, gypsum, copper sulfate, and red oxide to intensify colour and texture. [10] Inadvertent recipes for poison, cases like these have occurred globally throughout history.

In general, it has been found that consumers assume that the more intensely coloured a product, the more intense the flavour. For example, the more intensely red a salsa is coloured, the spicier the taster will imagine it to be. [11] Food marketers have exploited this correlation of colour and flavour intensity in foods, as well in packaging and advertising. Just look at the shift in colour gradations of potato chip bags from regular to “spicy” flavour, or consider the average interpretation of white chocolate versus dark chocolate flavours.

Colouring certain foods white can cause tasters to expect saltiness while colouring certain foods orange can cause tasters to expect citrus or cheese flavour. This effect varies with culture and geography. A 2010 study examined how the relationship between colour and flavour in beverages differed for people in the U.K. versus people in Taiwan. It was found that people in the U.K. associated brown with cola, blue with raspberry, and red with cherry; in Taiwan brown was associated with grape flavour, blue with mint, and red with cranberry. [12] In both countries participants associated the notion of “clear” with water, indicating that there is some common ground worldwide.

Researchers have also demonstrated that when colour confuses tasters’ perceptions of flavour, it often leads to an adverse reaction. In one investigation, three groups of participants were given a bright pink ice cream-like dish. The first group was provided with no information about the dish, the second group was told it was called “Food 386,” and the third group was informed that it was a “frozen savoury mousse.” [13] In reality, the pink dish was a frozen savoury salmon dish. Predictably, the participants given no information assumed that what they were about to eat was a sweet and fruity strawberry ice cream. The first group, which was misled by colour, rated the smoked salmon ice cream as being very unpleasant, disgusting, and too salty. The other two groups, which were given “Food 386” and “frozen savoury mousse” rated the dish as pleasant and well flavoured. [14]

Similarly, when participants in a 2011 study were given colourless Cheetos, lacking the artificial dye FD&C Yellow No. 6 known as ‘sunset yellow,’ they rated the snack as bland and derived little pleasure from eating it. [15] On this issue, Gardiner Harris, a writer for the New York Times, made the observation: “Their fingers did not turn orange. And their brains did not register much cheese flavour, even though the Cheetos tasted just as they did with food colouring.” [16] Like Sacks’ colourblind painter, these tasters found much less satisfaction in consuming food which was lacking its usual visual vibrancy.

Colour also has been found to influence tasters’ perceptions of food odours dramatically. Scientists in a 2001 study found that by artificially colouring wines, they could observe a phenomenon of “real perceptual illusion.” [17] For example, when white wines were coloured to imitate red wines the participants, even expert wine tasters, perceived the white wine as having the odours of red wine. Furthermore, it was also discovered that when participants were blindfolded and given a verbal indication of the wine’s colour, the odour of wine was influenced by the mental image of colour generated.

Finally, the cross-modal effects of colour have also been found to skew our haptic experience of food. A 2015 examination tested the gustatory relationship between colour and texture with yogurt and granola flakes. It was found that when the dish was tinted

Colour evokes in our minds an expectation of how food will be. When a dish is colourless or perceived to be ‘wrong’ in colour, the results are off-putting. We use colour as a signifier of nutrition, freshness, naturalness, and tastiness. Throughout history, food providers have taken advantage of these preferences to manipulate the appearance of food and pique appetites. Typically considered to be a purely visual aspect, colour can influence perceived flavours, textures, and odours. Colour is a conduit to full sensorial experience. Food manufacturers and mass media marketers have tapped into our innate human desire for colourful foods by giving us vibrantly filled refrigerators and pleasing dinner tables. The narrative of food colouring continues to feature many dramatic twists and turns; imagine what chromatic possibilities the future holds.

Notes

1. Kantha Shelke, "Colorless Food? We Blanch,” interview by Gardiner Harris, New York Times, April 2, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/weekinreview/03harris.html.

2. Oliver Sacks, “The Case of the Colourblind Painter,” An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales. (New York: Knopf, 1995). 7.

3. Charles Spence, "On the Psychological Impact of Food Colour." Flavour, (2015): 7.

4. John B. Hutchings, Food Colour and Appearance. (Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers, Inc.,1999). 11.

5. Pliny the Elder, “Book XIV,” Natural History, Vol. IV, Books XIV–XVI. Translated by H. Rackman. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960). 233.

6. “Add Color to Your Diet for Good Nutrition,” Harvard Health Publishing, July, 2013, https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/add-color-to-your-diet-for-good-nutrition

7. Ai Hisano, "The Rise of Synthetic Colors in the American Food Industry, 1870–1940,” Harvard Business School, Business History Review 90, no. 3 (December 13, 2016): 492-493.

8. Harold J. McKone, "The History of Food Colourants Before Aniline Dyes,” Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, no. 10 (1991): 25-31.

9. Vinita Sharma, Harold T. McKone, and Peter G. Markow, "A Global Perspective on the History, Use, and Identification of Synthetic Food Dyes,” Journal of Chemical Education 88, no. 1 (January 2011): 24-28.

10. Harold J. McKone, "The History of Food Colourants Before Aniline Dyes,” Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, no. 10 (1991): 25.

11. Charles Spence, "On the Psychological Impact of Food Colour." Flavour, (2015): 1-16.

12. Maya U. Shankar, Carmel A. Levitan, and Charles Spence, “Grape expectations: The role of cognitive influences in color–flavor interactions,” Consciousness and Cognition 19, no. 1. (March 2010): 380-390.

13. Martin R. Yeomans, Lucy Chambers, Heston Blumenthal, and Anthony Blake, "The role of expectancy in sensory and hedonic evaluation: The case of smoked salmon ice-cream,” Food Quality and Preference 19, no. 6 (September 2008): 565-73.

14. Ibid, 569-572.

15. Gardiner Harris, "Colorless Food? We Blanch,” New York Times, April 2, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/weekinreview/03harris.html.

16. Ibid.

17. Gil Morrot, Frédéric Brochet, and Denis Dubourdieu, "The Color of Odors,” Brain and Language 79, no. 2 (2001): 309-20.

18. Mathew Chylinski, Gavin Northey, and Liem Viet Ngo, “Cross‐modal Interactions between Color and Texture of Food,” Psychology & Marketing 32, no. 9 (August 11, 2015): 950–966.