Color and color perception are integral to a food product’s success. Part of the product development process is to determine which colors, or range of colors, are acceptable to consumers; the next step is to formulate the products to meet those criteria. Research has found color plays a role not only in a food’s likeability, but it also helps determine how much of a food consumers will eat.
According to Debbi Beauvais, nutritionist and spokesperson with the American Dietetic Association, color affects how much people serve themselves. The research was based on the Delboeuf illusion: that the perceived size of a circle depends on the size of the circle surrounding it. “When the inner circle is sufficiently smaller than the outer circle, it appears smaller than it actually is,” explained Satoru Suzuki, an associate professor of psychology at Northwestern University. “When the inner circle is sufficiently similar in size to the outer circle, it appears larger than it actually is.”