THE EFFECTS OF COLOR ON FOOD PREFERENCE

by
Lindsey Wilbur

A Senior Honors Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of

The University of Utah
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Honors Degree in Bachelor of Science

In
The Department of Communication
Approved:

Dr. Paul Rose

Supervisor

Dr. Kent Alan Ono

Chair, Department of Communication

Dr./Julia Corbett
Department Honors Advisor

Dr. Sylvia D. Torti

Dean, Honors College

April 2013

ABSTRACT

Color has an influence on our perception of food and affects the food choices we
make. In this study, images of food were used to test the effect of dish color on food
preferences. Pairs of various food images were shown to 96 college students. One image
in each pair displayed the food on a white dish, while the other image showed the food on
a colored dish. The students were asked to respond to a prompt presented with each pair
of images that read "which of these would you prefer to eat? " The study looks at
whether or not the color of the dish food is presented on has an influence on food appeal.
Results demonstrate that dish color has an effect on food appeal.

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT

ii

INTRODUCTION

METHODS

INSTRUMENT

RESULTS

15

DISCUSSION

17

FUTURE RESEARCH

20

REFERENCES

22

iii

INTRODUCTION
This study originated out of a personal interest to find a relationship between
aesthetic color combinations and nutritive value of food color combinations. Diving into
the appeal of food based on color perception, however, elevated the possibility of a
food's contextual color being influenced by consumer preferences. The use of color on
food packages is apparent on grocery store shelves. Color use varies from one brand to
the next dramatically. It seems then, that better understanding of the appropriate use of
color on product labels has an advantageous place in the marketing of food products.
This study determined that the visual principle of color contrast is at work in
realm of food appeal. The principle of contrast refers to the difference color in an image.
While the use of color receives much attention from food marketers in the design of
product packaging already, this study demonstrates that the proper use of white in
connection with other food colors can increase appeal among consumers.
Among the information communicated to us through our sense of sight is color. In
order to make decisions about which foods to eat, we access information from a range of
different sources including the food's color.
Previous research has shown that color has a significant effect on the recognition
of individual foods since foods are highly associated with their color (Bramao et al.)Ultimately, the food choices we make are a manifestation of our food preferences
however, and food preferences develop in response to food perception. Food perception
is formed by multiple factors: taste, smell, appearance, texture, temperature, mouth feel,
and past experience (Goff and Klee).
1

Looking specifically at the visual factors of food perception, the influence of

color on food appeal involves the contextual color a food is observed in as well as the
color of the food itself. The uses of dyes and genetic modification to enhance food color
are evidence that food is more appealing when it displays saturated rather than dull
colors. Butter is commonly dyed yellow rather than kept white for example, while genetic
modification is used to enhance the color of plant foods such as tomatoes (Abbott).
While the color of food affects its appeal, the contextual color of a food may have an
effect on appeal as well.
The color we observe a food to be is one determinant of the flavor we anticipate a
food to have (Cardello). The expectation of a particular flavor influence what consumers
purchase when making decisions at the grocery store since they must rely on packaging
to indicate the product that meets their needs.
The aim of marketing is to convince consumers that the product has necessary
value to them. To do this marketers research principles of visual communication to
understand how they can utilize visual media to communicate to consumers at the point
of purchase that the product will satisfy the consumer's wants based on the infonnation
he gathers from the packaging. One advantageous piece of information that marketers
have found is that different colors have different meanings to people in various cultures
(Madden, Hewett, Roth). If orange indicates cheapness to consumers as research
suggests, (Madden, Hewett, Roth) than selling a luxury item like chocolate in orange may
not achieve consumer appeal.
Color is a tool used by consumers to measure a product's quality (Francis). It is
2

logical then, that chocolate and chocolate products are commonly packaged in dark
hues rather than orange. Take for example Hershey's, Ghirardelli, and Cadbury. These
>

brands present their products in dark brown, royal blue, and violet respectively. Even a
scan of the chocolate section in the grocery store candy aisle reveals a common use of
dark rather than bright colors to market chocolate. This is an example of how color
communicates to consumers perceived information about the product. Further research is
necessary however to understand the complexity of food appeal in relation to color. The
research in this study looks specifically at the effects of contextual colors of food on food
appeal. This information is beneficial for marketers.

METHOD
The experiment was designed to test the effect color has on food preference by
using different colored dishes on which to display different foods. This provides the
contextual color for the food.
An image of each of the foods in the context of a colorful dish was compared
against an image that showcased the food on a white dish.
Administration of the test went as follows. Students were shown images of
various foods presented in pairs that displayed each of the foods on one white dish and
one colored dish. The images were shown to the students on a Powerpoint presentation
projected on a large screen. Ten different slides were used to show the students six
unique pairs of food. Four pairs were duplicated. The duplicated food pairs were shown
to subjects for the purpose of reversing the side of the screen on which the white and
3

colored dishes were presented. This was done to eliminate bias of the students' food
choices from screen placement. The six foods shown in the images were: cereal, rice
pilaf, salad, hamburger, chicken noodle soup, and cottage cheese.
By showing subjects foods served on both color and white dishes and recording
which option each subject preferred, the study intended to find a difference in food
appeal based on dish color. The subjects' responses were collected from three classes that
each took place during a different time of the day: 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and approximately 7
p.m. Altogether 96 students47 female and 49 malebetween the ages 18 and 35 took
part in the study. Subjects did not confer with one another while observing each set of
options and nothing was said to the students while they viewed the slides. Before
beginning the slide show, students were given a response sheet to record their answers
and verbally told to respond to the slide prompt in accordance to each numbered set on
their response sheet. From there, subjects were simply able to read the question, "Which
of these would you prefer to eat? " on each slide with pair of images.

Which of these would

you prefer to eat?

Which of these would

you prefer to

Which of these would

you prefer to eat?

Which of these would

you prefer to eat?

Which of these would

you prefer to eat

Which of these would

you prefer to eat?

10

Which of these would

you prefer to eat?

11

Which of these would

you prefer to eat?

p
12

Which of these would

you prefer to eat?

R
13

Which of these would

you prefer to eat?

14

RESULTS
The responses collected from the students reveal a majority preference for the
images of food served on white dishes opposed to the images of the same foods served on
colored dishes. Five out of the six unique food pairs were preferred on white dishes
while the one exception to the white dishes' popularity was a consistent finding that may
be a point of interest for further research. Of the six foods shown in the images, cottage
cheese was the only sample that subjects preferred the image on a colored dish. This
suggests that the influence on food preference is a result of the color contrast formed by
the dish and the food, since the white food was preferred on a colored dish while the
colorful foods were preferred on white dishes. These results demonstrate that dish color
affects food preference and may have relevance in the marketing of food products.
As the graph shows, the subjects had the opposite reaction to the images of
cottage cheese as they did to the rest of the foods. In the other five food images, which
accounted for nine of the ten slides shown to the subjects, seven of the nine slides yielded
more than 60% preference for the white dishes, while four slides received majority
responses of at least 75% of the subjects in favor of the white dishes. In the case of the
cottage cheese however, 65% of subjects preferred the image showcasing the food in a
blue bowl rather than the image showcasing it in a white dish.

15

Another point of interest from the data collected may be how the results from the
second set of duplicated images have more polarized results than their primary
counterparts. The cereal, soup, salad, and rice images were all shown a second time with
the two images in each pair shown on the opposite side of the screen as they were
displayed previously. While this action ruled out a bias existing for images on either the
left or right side of the screen (since the white dishes were preferred in both scenarios) it
also reveals that when the images were shown a second time the appeal of the food on the
white dishes increased. Three out of the four food images that were shown twice exhibit
an increase in preference for the food option on the white dish from the first to the second
showing. These three images were of the rice pilaf, cereal, and soup and were preferred
on white dishes by 53, 62, and 68 percent respectively upon the subjects' initial viewing.
After the second viewing, these preferences for the white dish increased to 75% or more.

16

Finally, it may be significant that the difference in preference for the hamburger
on the white plate (opposed to the red plate it was also shown on) was preferred by only
53%; a relatively small difference in comparison to other samples. In one of the classes
the students did not show a preference for either the red or the white plate depiction of
the hamburger and in another class the females actually showed a slight preference for
the red plate. Overall the white plate was preferred 51 to 45.
The overall pattern of white dish preference among each of the three classes is
evidence that the time of day the test was conducted did not influence the students'
responses. The subjects responded similarly to one another regardless of the class in
which they participated.
DISCUSSION
While the majority of images were preferred on the white dishes in comparison to the
colored dishes, the preference for the colored dish in the case of the cottage cheese
suggests that appeal may be influenced by the contrast of the food's contextual color.
The preferences of the students do not reveal an inclination toward either color or white
contexts to enhance food appeal, but rather show that contrast between white and color is
appealing. While the majority preferred the food on the white dish, the reverse was true
in the case of the cottage cheese, which was preferred in a colored bowl. This may be a
result of the contrast created between the white food (cottage cheese) and the blue color
of the bowl. While the other five foods presented to the students exhibited a variety of
colors, cottage cheese is predominantly white, and since it stands alone in being preferred
on a colored dish opposed to white one, it may be that the students simply prefer contrast
17

between the food and the dish. This demonstrates that the visual appeal of food and its
context is related to the aesthetic principle of contrast that is regularly applied to visual
media industries, such as television and art, and may be useful to apply to food
marketing. Food producers must often rely on packaging and advertisements to sell
products to consumers. Both packaging and advertising are media that afford marketers
only visual communication with which to compete for consumer attention. In this
environment, use of color is an important tool to attract consumer attention and as
this study shows, there are advantages to employing contrasting color.
Examining the cereal aisle at the grocery store highlights one application of the
findings of this study. The majority of cereal boxes on shelves at Smith's Marketplace in
Salt Lake City exhibited multiple colors in addition to an image of the cereal itself.
Along with colorful backgrounds and lettering of brand names, the majority of more than
100 cereal boxes analyzed incorporated additional colors on the box to boast product
features concerning nutritive content or health assertions such as, "heart healthy
selection." This unnatural overabundance of color (Kalmus) may be less appealing than
the use of contrast that depicts color to white ratios that more closely resemble what we
see in the real world.
Another obvious pattern is an increase in preference for the food served on white
dishes when shown to the subjets a second time. The images in each pair depicted the
exact same food, so an initial detection of the similarity between the images may have
caused subjects to be less concerned with their choice until further slides caused them to
strengthen a preference for the white dishes. In both instances the white
18

dishes were preferred. This pattern suggests that if the hamburger image, which was
preferred on a white plate by a small margin of 53%, had been displayed a second time, it
too would have been preferred on the white dish by a greater majority in the second
viewing.
One possible reason for the marginal difference between preferences for the red or
white plate depictions of the hamburger however, may be a result of previously formed
associations with hamburgers and the color red. Coincidentally, red is commonly used in
logos among fast food restaurants that sell hamburgers. McDonald's, Burger King,
Wendy's, and Hardee's are all fast food burger restaurants that Have been branded by the
predominant use red prediominantly in their logos. The appearance of hamburgers
portrayed in a red setting may have been familiar to the students and interfered with the
appeal of contrast and provided the marginal results collected.
For this study, students responded to images of food choices instead of having
actual samples available for them to choose and eat, which may have had an influence on
the choices students made. However, using images instead of real food samples
eliminated other sensory factors that could have influenced the students' decisions had
they been presented with real food samples. Images engage only the sense of sight, but
in the real world encounters with food have the potential to activate all of the senses that
would then relay information to us that affects our perception of the food and influences
our food choice. People can smell food, feel the firmness of produce at the grocery store,
break a loaf of bread, but in this scenario the only information available to the students
was visual. This provided a way to isolate the effects of color on food preference. The
19

use of images rather than real food samples also allowed this study to
parallel marketing situations since, just as this study also employed, advertisements and
product labels are mediated forms of communication. The benefits advertisers can reap
from this study are clear from its connection to images used for advertisements and
packaging. Use of contrast in such images is shown by this study to increase food appeal.
Serving suggestions are another way advertisers may use this research to manipulate
product images and increase visual appeal. Contrast that advertisers can choose to
incorporate in their work for better response among consumers.

FUTURE RESEARCH
Studies show that this collaboration is done for the purpose of our health (Goff
and Klee). The collaboration of senses memorizes connections between our external
experiences with various foods and the physical effects experienced upon consumption.
In this way associations are built between health effects of food and the visual cues we
take in from the environment. So, it is possible that the color of a food itself indicates
nutrition information to our eyes and may be the reason colorfulness of food affects its
appeal to consumers. Studies in nutrition have been published to disseminate findings of
health benefits such as cancer prevention (Heber) from a colorful diet. The nutritive
value of eating a variety of colors and the wide use of colors on food packaging suggests
a possible link between the appeal of color in both fields of nutrition and advertising.
Further research that builds upon the results of this test could give evidence that health is
responsible for the appeal of color in food while the implication of health is responsible
20

for the appeal of color in food packaging and advertising. This is an area for further
research since the possible indication of health benefits that food color has may be a
correlation between the color of a food and nutrition, rather than the contrast between
food and its context.
Another area for further research evoked by this study is how specific colors
affect perception of specific foods. In this study, each food was presented on only one
colored dish along with a white dish. However food is highly associated with color
(Bramao et al), which brings about the question as to whether different colors affect the
appeal of food in differing degrees. In the case of the hamburger, a possible association
with fast food
from use of the color red may have influenced the students decisions, and yet this study
did not analyze the effect of red in comparison to other colors, but rather in comparison
to white. In the case of the hamburger similar popularity was exhibited of the food on a
red plate as it had when shown on a white plate. Perhaps red in particular is flattering for
hamburgers. It may be that people have previously built associations with fast food and
warm colors such as red. Future research may benefit marketers by testing the effects of
various colors on people's perception of one food in particular.

21

REFERENCES
Abbott, Judith A. "Quality Measurement of Fruits and Vegetables." Postharvest Biology
and Technology 15.3 (1999): 207-25. Horticulture Crops Quality Laboratory, Plant
Science Institute, Agriculture Research. Web. Mar. 2013.
Bramao, Ines, Alexandra Reis, Karl Magnus Petersson, and Luis Faisca. "The Role of
Color Information on Object Recognition: A Review and Meta-analysis." Acta
Psychologica 38.1 (2011): 244-53. Print.
Cardello, Armand V., Owen Mailer, Helene Bloom Masor, Cindy Dubose, and Barbara
Edelman. "Role of Consumer Expectancies in the Acceptance of Novel Foods." Journal
of Food Science 50.6 (1985): 1707-714. Print.
Francis, F. J. "How Color Effects Mood (works Cited)." How Color Effects Mood (works
Cited). Elsevier Science Limited, n.d. Web. Mar. 2013.
Goff, S. A. "Plant Volatile Compounds: Sensory Cues for Health and Nutritional
Value?" Science 311.5762 (2006): 815-19. Print.
Madden, Thomas J., Kelly Hewett, and Martin S. Roth. "Managing Images in Different
Cultures: A Cross-National Study of Color Meanings and Preferences." Managing
Images in Different Cultures: A Cross-National Study of Color Meanings and
Preferences 8.4 (2000): n. pag. Business Information, News, and Reports. Web. Feb.
2013.

22