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What's the Story With Blue Steak? On the Unexpected Popularity of Blue Foods
Is blue food desirable or disgusting? The answer, it would seem, is both, but it really depends on the food in which the color happens to be present. It turns out that the oft-cited aversive response to blue meat may not even have been scientifically validated, despite the fact that blue food colori...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7960775/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33737898 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.638703 |
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author | Spence, Charles |
author_facet | Spence, Charles |
author_sort | Spence, Charles |
collection | PubMed |
description | Is blue food desirable or disgusting? The answer, it would seem, is both, but it really depends on the food in which the color happens to be present. It turns out that the oft-cited aversive response to blue meat may not even have been scientifically validated, despite the fact that blue food coloring is often added to discombobulate diners. In the case of drinks, however, there has been a recent growth of successful new blue product launches in everything from beer to tea, and from wine to gin, arguing that coloring food products blue is more than simply a contemporary fad. In fact, the current interest in blue food coloring builds on the color's earlier appearance in everything from blue curacao to blue-raspberry candyfloss (cotton candy), and thereafter a number of soft drinks. Over the years, the combination of blue coloring with raspberry flavoring has also appeared in everything from bubble-gum to patriotic pop rocks (popping candy in The United States). Ultimately, it is the rarity of naturally-blue foods that is likely what makes this color so special. As such, blue food coloring can both work effectively to attract the visual attention of the shopper while, at the same time, being linked to a range of different flavors (since this is one of the few color-flavor mappings that are essentially arbitrary) depending on the food format in which it happens to appear. Note also that the basic descriptor “blue” covers a wide range of hues having a range of different associations, hence eliciting different reactions (be they positive or negative). While blue was once associated with artificiality, a growing number of natural blue food colorings have come onto the market in recent years thus perhaps changing the dominant associations that many consumers may have with this most unusual of food colors. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7960775 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-79607752021-03-17 What's the Story With Blue Steak? On the Unexpected Popularity of Blue Foods Spence, Charles Front Psychol Psychology Is blue food desirable or disgusting? The answer, it would seem, is both, but it really depends on the food in which the color happens to be present. It turns out that the oft-cited aversive response to blue meat may not even have been scientifically validated, despite the fact that blue food coloring is often added to discombobulate diners. In the case of drinks, however, there has been a recent growth of successful new blue product launches in everything from beer to tea, and from wine to gin, arguing that coloring food products blue is more than simply a contemporary fad. In fact, the current interest in blue food coloring builds on the color's earlier appearance in everything from blue curacao to blue-raspberry candyfloss (cotton candy), and thereafter a number of soft drinks. Over the years, the combination of blue coloring with raspberry flavoring has also appeared in everything from bubble-gum to patriotic pop rocks (popping candy in The United States). Ultimately, it is the rarity of naturally-blue foods that is likely what makes this color so special. As such, blue food coloring can both work effectively to attract the visual attention of the shopper while, at the same time, being linked to a range of different flavors (since this is one of the few color-flavor mappings that are essentially arbitrary) depending on the food format in which it happens to appear. Note also that the basic descriptor “blue” covers a wide range of hues having a range of different associations, hence eliciting different reactions (be they positive or negative). While blue was once associated with artificiality, a growing number of natural blue food colorings have come onto the market in recent years thus perhaps changing the dominant associations that many consumers may have with this most unusual of food colors. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-03-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7960775/ /pubmed/33737898 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.638703 Text en Copyright © 2021 Spence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Spence, Charles What's the Story With Blue Steak? On the Unexpected Popularity of Blue Foods |
title | What's the Story With Blue Steak? On the Unexpected Popularity of Blue Foods |
title_full | What's the Story With Blue Steak? On the Unexpected Popularity of Blue Foods |
title_fullStr | What's the Story With Blue Steak? On the Unexpected Popularity of Blue Foods |
title_full_unstemmed | What's the Story With Blue Steak? On the Unexpected Popularity of Blue Foods |
title_short | What's the Story With Blue Steak? On the Unexpected Popularity of Blue Foods |
title_sort | what's the story with blue steak? on the unexpected popularity of blue foods |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7960775/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33737898 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.638703 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT spencecharles whatsthestorywithbluesteakontheunexpectedpopularityofbluefoods |