Colour influences the flavour of orange juice

COLOUR has an effect on perceived flavour, and the expected and actual liking of orange juice, according to a new study.

The findings, published in the Flavour journal, seem to confirm the widely accepted fact that food can be more or less appealing because of its appearing.

When testing the influence of orange juice colour on flavour intensity, the sourness perceived by tasters significantly increased with a juice slightly dyed in green food colouring.

Results also revealed that consumers expected a better flavour from a red-dyed orange juice, and that they actually liked more the green-dyed one after tasting it.

A group of researchers from the universities of Sevilla and Nottingham performed comparison tests with 30 people to determine the influence of orange juice colour on flavour intensity, sweetness and sourness.

Then, they asked 100 orange juice consumers to rate expected and actual liking of colour-modified juice samples, making sure their flavour wasn’t altered.