Open AccessTHE IMPORTANCE OF VISUAL APPEARANCE OF FOODS TO THE FOOD PROCESSOR AND THE CONSUMER 1
Author(s) -
HUTCHINGS J. B.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
journal of food quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.568
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1745-4557
pISSN - 0146-9428
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-4557.1977.tb00945.x
Subject(s) - product (mathematics) , perception , presentation (obstetrics) , food science , food products , order (exchange) , sensory system , relation (database) , marketing , computer science , advertising , psychology , cognitive psychology , mathematics , business , chemistry , medicine , geometry , finance , database , neuroscience , radiology
. Many individual factors contribute to the total perception of the appearance of a food product. This total perception is built up from all the visual sensations experienced when a product is viewed on the shelf, as it is being prepared and when it is presented on the plate, and all three situations are extremely important to the consumer and hence to the processor. The food technologist is now being asked to fabricate foods like steak from vegetable protein, yet at the same time is coming under increasing pressure to reduce the number and level of “additives” in processed foods. These factors have forced us to consider objectively the whole philosophy of product appearance. The paper begins by considering Kramer's views on sensory attributes and how these attributes are influenced by time and order of perception. The role of appearance is then discussed in relation to the total sensory experience of a product. The factors comprising appearance can be divided into three broad classes: the product's optical properties, its physical form and its mode of presentation, all of which combine at different times and in different ways to form the three images of any product, viz. on the shelf, in the pan, and on the plate. This formalization of appearance science provides a framework against which both product technology and marketing can be discussed.