ColorTable: Manipulating Tasting Experiences, Impact of Light Color on Food Flavor Perception

Abstract

Multi-sensory perception of taste and flavour is one of the more complex perceptional experiences. The taste itself in food can be perceived differently by its presentation and therefore, flavor perception can be manipulated. ColorTable is a dining table with a lighting system based on Philips Hue Wireless Lighting System. The table can illuminate dishes with thousands of various colors. In this paper, we examine if different light colors of ColorTable influence the perception of taste and the visual appearance of food. We show that food experience and taste perception is changed by different colors emitted by ColorTable. As food items, we choose sweet and salted popcorn and more complex flavored industrial produced Black Forest Cake. Based on a qualitative pretest with participants, we selected the light colors for the food items. Participants selected the best and worse matching light colors for both items to be used. As a result, the cake was illuminated in the experiment with pink and orange light color and sweet and salty popcorn with white and blue light color in a neutral light lab environment. The overall flavor of the cake was significantly higher with pink light color than with orange light color. A similar result was persistent for sweet popcorn, which was rated better when consumed with blue light color than with white light color. We conclude that the perceived taste and visual appeal of food can be altered with ColorTable. Objectively same quality food can be served tastier and improve the food experience, not only through the taste and smell of food itself but also by its presentation and representation. This approach can enhance the tasting experience and on the long run probably also enable a better understanding sense of smell and taste for food experiences.