2.5. Visual Cues
2.5.1. Importance of visual cues
A series of visual cues impacting consumer cognitive perceptions has been reported in
different contexts (Wadhera and others 2014). Visual exposure to a food before consumption can
reduce neophobia and facilitate introducing new foods to children by increasing their willingness
to try a novel food. This visual appeals not only can improve the desire to try new foods but
encourage their consumption. Arranging foods on a plate can affect our expectations and
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perceptions of varieties of the meals, which also affects energy intake. Further, visual exposure to
food elicits the physiological release of saliva and other regulatory peptides required for digestion.
2.5.2. Impact of visual cues on taste perception and food intake
Taste perceptions can change depending on visual stimuli. Altering the appearance of food
can affect people’s perception of taste and food intake. Food appearance is a compound view of
all the information about the product and its environment perceived by the eyes. Unfortunately,
the world of color has superseded appearance as the description of the entire visual perception of
foods; thus, color is concerned even more when it comes to total appearance. Indeed, it has long
been recognized that color constitutes one of the most salient visual cues, affecting sensory
perception of both taste and flavor of foods. Food color can be considered perhaps as the single
most important intrinsic sensory cue governing consumer’s sensory and hedonic expectations of
foods and drinks and the items they search for and subsequently consume.
The addition of food coloring influences sensory thresholds for certain basic tastes. Mega
(1974) demonstrated that adding food coloring (green, red or yellow) to an otherwise clear solution
exerted a significant effect on thresholds for the detection of certain basic taste when presented in
a solution. Adding green food coloring decreased people's detection threshold for sourness, while
at the same time increasing the detection threshold for sweetness. The addition of yellow coloring
reduced the detection threshold for both sourness and sweetness while the addition of red coloring
reduced the detection threshold for bitterness. More intensely colored food is likely to be perceived
as more intensely flavored. Stevenson and others (1999) showed that paring a color or odor with a
sour or sweet taste led to increased expected sourness or sweetness ratings of the associated
solution. In addition to intrinsic food color, color–taste correspondences are of interest in food
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of a product. Previous research has revealed that foods such as cakes and snack foods (e.g.,
chocolate chip cookies or popcorn) are hedonically influenced by their containers. A salty/sweet
popcorn served in a blue bowl was rated as slightly, but significantly sweeter/saltier than the same
popcorn served in a white bowl (Harrar and others 2011).
Geier and others (2012) suggested that segmenting food into multiple and smaller units can
promote food intake as this increases perceived sensory variety. For instance, a small size and
more pieces of biscuits and chocolate bars reduce the consumption of that foods, without changing
pleasantness (Marchiori and others 2011). Evidence also suggested that the size of the plate
affected the overall perception of Asian noodles. The noodles served on small plates received
higher familiarity, pleasantness, food plate congruency, and willingness–to–pay scores compared
to noodle served on substantially larger plates. The author suggested that the small plate might
lead the participants to perceive the amount of food to be larger as compared to the same portion
served on a larger plate (Zhao and others 2018).
Texture is one of the food cues that has been reported to impact consumer acceptance.
There are a variety of texture attributes such as firmness, crunchiness, smoothness, creaminess,
and thickness (solid) and viscosity (liquid) (Szczesniak 2002). Texture also has been described as
the mechanical and surface properties of food detected through the sense of vision, hearing, touch
and kinesthetic. McCrickerd and Forde (2016) noted that food texture plays an important role in
moderating energy intake, as many solid foods are consumed at rates of < 10 g to 100 g per min,
whereas liquid beverage is consumed much faster, often 600 g per min. Viscous, chewy and hard
foods are consumed more slowly and are consciously ingested in smaller quantities than foods and
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viscosity on taste perception, particularly sweetness and saltiness, as part of multisensory
interaction strategies to reduce sugar and salt intake.
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