Scientists Discover the Secret to Making Food Seem Tastier

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Color Saturation Poke

Revealed: The Secrets our Clients Used to Earn $3 Billion

The picture left wing of a poke bowl does not look as fresh and delicious to audiences as the one on the right. Credit: Ohio State University

How does color effect how you view food?

According to current research study, a dining establishment might enhance sales by utilizing an enticing picture of a hamburger or other menu product, specifically if the appropriate filter is utilized. According to the research study, food appears fresher and more delicious in pictures with a high color saturation, which increases audiences’ desire to purchase menu products.

Color saturation is a term utilized to explain how lively and abundant the reds, greens, and blues remain in a photo. However, the visual range of the food in the image and even whether clients anticipate to consume alone or with others impact how successfully color saturation works to make food appealing.

These findings offer an uncomplicated method to enhance sales in the competitive dining establishment market, according to Stephanie Liu, the research study’s lead author and an associate teacher of hospitality management at The Ohio State University.

“On Instagram, it means using the ‘X-Pro II’ filter on your food photos rather than the ‘Earlybird’ filter,” Liu stated. “It is not difficult and doesn’t cost a dime, so it is an easy win for restaurant marketers.”

The findings were just recently released in the Journal of Business Research The researchers carried out 2 online research studies.

In one research study, 267 individuals were advised to picture themselves checking out choices on an online platform for buying food. Photos of poke bowls, a Hawaiian meal including raw, marinaded fish pieces, veggies, and sauce served over rice, existed to the individuals. They were from a fictitious called dining establishment Poke Kitchen.

Participants in the research study were arbitrarily designated to see among 4 unique images, each with various color saturation and visual range.

The pictures with high color saturation were modified with expert graphic style software application to be 130% more saturated than the low-saturation pictures. The up-close pictures were 130% bigger in radius and appeared nearer to the observer than the more far-off picture.

Participants were asked to rate how fresh the food in each picture looked, how delicious it looked and how most likely they would be to acquire it. The food in the more extremely saturated pictures looked fresher and more delicious to individuals, which led them to be most likely to acquire the food, results revealed.

But color saturation had a more powerful result when the food appeared more far-off in the pictures, Liu stated.

“When the food is shown close up, it is already easy for the viewers to imagine how fresh and tasty the food would be,” she stated. “Color saturation is not as necessary.”

The 2nd research study included 222 online individuals. In this case, the individuals were asked to picture they were searching Instagram and discovered pictures of pizza from a fictitious dining establishment near their house called PizzaCity They were revealed pictures either high or low in color saturation.

People in the research study were likewise informed they would either be consuming alone or with household that night and were once again asked to rank the pizza on viewed freshness and tastiness and on whether they would likely acquire the menu product.

As in the previous research study, the food in the color-saturated picture was constantly viewed as fresher and more delicious and one that individuals would be most likely to purchase. But that result was more powerful for individuals who were informed they would be consuming alone and weaker for those who would be consuming with household.

“When people are eating with others, the social experience is a big part of what people look forward to,” Liu stated. “But when they anticipate eating alone, they focus more on the food itself. They want the food to be fresher and tastier and that’s why color saturation is more important in this context.”

These findings are more crucial now than ever previously, with individuals buying online and taking a look at pictures to assist them choose what to consume, Liu stated.

“Restaurants have to post pictures of their food on social media and online ordering platforms,” she stated. “They should be paying as much attention, or maybe more, to the photos they post as they do to the text. Color saturation is one key element they need to focus on.”

Reference: “Marketing online food images via color saturation: A sensory imagery perspective” by Stephanie Q. Liu, Laurie Luorong Wu, Xi Yu, and Huiling Huang, 13 July 2022, Journal of Business Research
DOI: 10.1016/ j.jbusres.202206061