The taste of cutlery: how the taste of food is affected by the weight, size, shape, and colour of the cutlery used to eat it

The taste of cutlery: how the taste of food is affected by the weight, size, shape, and colour of the cutlery used to eat it Harrar and Spence Harrar and Spence Flavour 2013, 2:21 http://www.flavourjournal.com/content/2/1/21 Harrar and Spence Flavour 2013, 2:21 http://www.flavourjournal.com/content/2/1/21 RESEARCH Open Access The taste of cutlery: how the taste of food is affected by the weight, size, shape, and colour of the cutlery used to eat it *Vanessa Harrar and Charles Spence Abstract Background: Recent evidence has shown that changing the plateware can affect the perceived taste and flavour of food, but very little is known about visual and proprioceptive influences of cutlery on the response of consumers to the food sampled from it. In the present study, we report three experiments designed to investigate whether food tastes different when the visual and tactile properties of the plastic cutlery from which it is sampled are altered. We independently varied the weight, size, colour, and shape of cutlery. We assessed the impact of changing the sensory properties of the cutlery on participants’ ratings of the sweetness, saltiness, perceived value, and overall liking of the food tasted from it.