With a hint of Sudachi: food plating can facilitate the fondness of food

Abstract Among the senses of food, our sense of taste is significantly influenced by our perception. In appetite science, previous research reported that when we make estimate the quality in daily life, we rely considerably on visual information (Carlos et al., 2012). In this study, we focused on the multimodal mental imagery (Nanay, 2018) evoked by the visual information of food served on a plate and examined the effect of the peripheral visual information: garnish, on the sensory impression of the main dish. We conducted a sensory evaluation experiment to evaluate the impressions of food photographs and structured the sensory values using multivariate analysis. We found that the appearance of the garnish placed on the plates close to the main meal contributes to appetite arousal. Here we show that color, moisture, and taste (sourness and spices) play a major role in the decision. In order to arouse one’s appetite, it is important to make the main dish appear warmer. Our results can be used to modulate eating experience and appetite arousal. Applying these results for meals can contribute toward making the dining experience more attractive by superimposing visual information on it with XR technology, or by presenting real appropriate garnishes.