A (Good) Picture is Worth 1,000 Happy Tastebuds

Interesting news today on the food tastiness front. Turns out, just seeing good pictures of the food we're about to eat can go a long way towards positively affecting what we think of the food.

Or, so says a multi-organizational study on the visual/taste connection that includes:

• Perception Physiology, Nestlé Research Center, Vers-chez-les-Blanc (Lausanne, Switzerland)
• Departments for Clinical Neurosciences and Radiology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois and University of Lausanne (Lausanne, Switzerland)
• Organization for Interdisciplinary Research Projects, The University of Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)

Food photographers and stylists across the word are rejoicing at this news, no doubt.

This is a bit of a lengthy quote from the paper's abstract, but it really does sum things up quite nicely:

Vision provides a primary sensory input for food perception. It raises expectations on taste and nutritional value and drives acceptance or rejection....

"Using electrical neuroimaging, we assessed whether high- and low-calorie food cues... influence the brain processing and perception of taste.

"When viewing high-calorie food images, participants reported the subsequent taste to be more pleasant than when low-calorie food images preceded the identical taste....

"Our findings reveal previously unknown mechanisms of cross-modal, visual-gustatory, sensory interactions underlying food evaluation.

It's a little bit science geek-speak, but the bottom line is pretty clear: seeing good pictures of the food you're about to eat can change your opinion of it.

What's most interesting about this study is that brain activity of the participants' was actually measured, and the study didn't rely on the participants' opinions, which always makes things reek of being pseudoscience to me.

No question, making a great product means starting with great food ingredients, and now, if you're a food producer, you'd be well served to keep making the great food, and to also read the study and consider hiring a good food photographer.

Labels: food photography, food taste