Does the the look of food affect your bias of taste towards it

We are wondering if the way food looks affects how it tastes. We are going to bake cookies in two batches. they will have the same recipe except one batch has green food dye in it, then we will hand them out and record which one was the favorite
Davan Bodnar Peyton Matton
Grade 6

Presentation

No video provided

Hypothesis

I think that people will find a difference in the cookies, because there are actual examples of this happening.

Research

Did you know that Froot loops actually all taste the same? Many people have held blind taste tests and they couldn't tell the difference. It's actually just the colouring that tricks your brain into thinking they're difference. We can apply this information to other things and see that maybe other things (like our cookies) may be the same.

Variables

manipulated variable: The colour of the cookies

Controled variables: The cookie recipe, what we tell the people trying the cookies

Responding variable: Which cookie people prefer

 

Procedure

1. make one batch of cookies according to recipe

2. make seconed batch same but with green food colouring

3. Bring both batches to school in plastic bag

4. set up table with two plates, cookies, and permision forms

5. get kids to form a line in front of the table

6. each child will sign a permission form, and then take a green cookie and a regular one

7. people will tell us which cookie they prefered, and it will be marked on tally chart

Observations

for our observations, 18 people prefered the green cookies and 13 people prefered the regular cookies. Many people thought that the green cookies were mint flavour, and they did look mint. After the experiment, a few people asked what the difference was between the cookies, and when we told them they were shocked.

Analysis

Our information shows that 18 people prefered the green cookies and 13 people prefered the regular. maybe this means that look does effest taste.

Conclusion

Based on the information we have gathered, we can conclude that the look of something DOES change the taste/bias towrads it. People actually did find a difference in taste and were actually surprised when told they were the cookies were the same. Our information shows that 18 people prefered the green cookies and 13 people prefered the regular.

Application

We can see that the look of something does change the way it tastes, so if you don't like the way something tastes, maybe it's just the way it looks. If you are cooking and you want it to appeal to others, try using big colours that pop!

Sources Of Error

There are quite a few places this project could have gone wrong. One of the ways is because they were baked in different batches. We didn't just bake the batter and split it, we made into different batches. Don't worry though, they were the exact same recipe except for the food colouring. I also tasted a cookie, and knowing that they were the same, i could tell they were the same.

Citations

recipe: https://thecookiedoughdiaries.com/chocolate-chip-cookies-without-brown-sugar/#recipe 

Acknowledgement