Food Quality and Preference, an Elsevier Journal
Hendrick Shifferstein and Bryan Howell
The color of the background on which products are presented may affect their perceived attractiveness. We presented five different vegetables (tomato, carrot, yellow bell pepper, cucumber, eggplant) on four different background colors (orange or blue, either light or dark). Although the backgrounds did not affect the direct color perception of the vegetables, they did affect their perceived attractiveness, with quite different backgrounds proving optimal for the various vegetables. These outcomes suggest that it is difficult to find non-neutral background colors on which a large number of vegetables can be presented in an optimal way.
Keywords: Vegetables; Retail design; Color assimilation; Color contrast; Simultaneous contrast