Changing colours to reduce need for sugar

20-Oct-2015 - Last updated on 21-Oct-2015 at 14:04 GMT

Flavours of food with lighter colours perceived as sweeter

A psychologist and a chef are using a multi-sensory approach to address health issues such as reducing sugar and salt content in food.

Oxford University’s experimental psychologist, Charles Spence, has teamed up with chef Jozef Youssef and his project Kitchen Theory.

They believe that understanding how humans interact and relate to food will allow them to guide people towards more nutritious and sustainable choices.

Working with Ferran Adria’s Alicia foundation, they found that the colour and shape of plates can affect perception of the flavours of a food with lighter colours perceived as sweeter.

‘Changing colour of food’

Spence said: “The research with the Alicia foundation brings about the question of whether it would be possible to reduce the amount of sugar in a dish or food product simply by changing the colour of the food or its packaging.”

He added: “This encourages consumers to believe they are enjoying the same level of sweetness without adding high levels of sugar in foods.”