It can even extend past the food itself to the colors involved in its presentation, Wadhera says, pointing to research showing people eating different amounts or preferring certain foods linked to the colors of the dishes used to serve them.
Synthetic dyes helped overcome problems like foods losing color in the production process and helped make foods look more “natural,” she says.
It was part of their marketing, as a shorthand to encourage brand recognition, to make consumers feel comfortable about quality and overcome worries (or realities) about spoilage as food production became industrialized, says Ai Hisano, author of “Visualizing Taste: How Business Changed the Look of What You Eat.”.
Food companies began promoting colorful icing for the cakes as a way women baking at home “could kind of present their personality even though they are making a pre-mixed cake,” Hisano says.
Different cultures around the world also have different color associations, he says, although it's fairly constant across geographies that the more vivid a color is, the more intense people assume the flavor will be.
