Influence of color on food: Who uses blue plates, eat less

winemaker Ulrich Allendorf has been invited to a wine tasting to Oestrich-Winkel in the Rheingau. In the case of a neutral white light, he gives his guests a glass of Riesling for tasting. It tastes fruity, slightly dry. A little later the next round. The wine that is now driving up to a red light in the room, appears to the experts, fruity and sweeter than the previous one.

again and again, the winemaker changed the light in the room, then Red, then Green, then Blue and finally Yellow. The green light served the wine in front of the connoisseurs of sour and immature, the blue light kredenzte watery. In yellow light, the wine tastes harmonious – perfectly balanced between sweet and sour.

The remarkable thing: It was always the same wine. The different taste, the experts have only imaginary, of the different coloured light trails. A deception of the senses.

Green Apples are more acidic than red. Or?

Because colors can affect our sense of taste – be it positive or negative. This can be useful, for example, if we have to decide how durable and high-quality food. “Taste is not only limited to the actual sense of taste,” says the psychologist Kathrin Ohla. Anyone who eats chocolate, it can determine, for example, with the sense of taste, only that it is sweet.

but you talk of it, that it tastes like something, so you mean the Texture, the Aroma, and the chocolate sounds in the mouth, says Ohla. So all the senses contribute to how people perceive food and drink. Ohla psychologist at the research center Jülich; your area of expertise, psychology of perception, your focus on the Taste. It examines how it can be influenced by external information, such as, for example, colors and smells.