DOES THE COLOR OF FOOD AFFECT THE TASTE OF FOOD?

Part One:

Scenario:

Ruben wants to determine if listening to different types of music will have an effect on a person’s pulse. His hypothesis states that if a person listens to rap music, their pulse will increase more than if they listen to other types of music. Ruben takes each participant’s pulse before, during, and after listening to 30 minutes of music. He has his mother listen to rock music, his sister listen to classical music, and his friend listen to rap music. From the data collected, he determined that rap music raises a person’s pulse the most.

1. Identify the independent and dependent variables in Ruben’s hypothesis. 

The dependent variable in Ruben’s hypothesis is each person’s pulse. The independent variable in Ruben’s hypothesis is the 30 minutes that each person listens to the music.

2. Despite the results, this experiment is not able to support Ruben’s hypothesis. Suggest specific improvements that will make the experiment test the given hypothesis. Explain why these changes are improvements.

Some specific improvements that will make the experiment test given hypothesis is to have you every person listen to the music in the same environment because outside factors may affect the experiment. He should also have each person listen to each type of music because the music may have a different effect on each person’s pulse. 

Part Two:

Purpose

Scenario:

You are babysitting your neighbor's children and their seven year daughter refuses to eat anything orange because she says that it's "yucky." You prepare Mac 'n' cheese for dinner along with sliced apples and oranges. The two sons eat everything and the daughter only eats the apples and snubs the rest. When you ask her why she won't eat it, she says because it's orange.

Question: Does the color of food affect the taste of the food?  

Research

colormatters.com

http://sensing.konicaminolta.us/how-color-affects-your-perception-of-food/

Both resources tested large bodies of people and found that in fact color did affect or taste.

Hypothesis

• If I were to test the taste of the same food in different colors, then the taste will be affected and will draw the person's taste to the color of their liking.
• If I were to test the taste of the same food in different colors, then the taste of the food will remain the same and the color will not affect the liking or disliking of the food.

Experiment

Gather about ten people, and in this experiment keep a controlled variable which will be the age and gender of the subjects. These two details will remain constant so that gender and age cannot be a factor of the results. 

Materials that will be used include:

• Food dye (Red, Blue, Green)
• Several different types of food/drink
• Bowls
• Spoons
• Cups  
• Water

Remember to use foods that can be easily dyed. (I will be using applesauce, mac'n'cheese, water, oranges and apple juice.)

1. Start by pouring applesauce into four large bowls.
2. Mix red food coloring into one bowl, blue into another and green into another. (The fourth bowl will remain the controlled because the color will not change.)
3. Have each subject taste each color with a different spoon in each and washing their mouths out with water after each. (Washing their mouths out with water to wash out the color will psychologically make them thing that the taste of the 'color' is gone, before tasting the next color.) 
4. Record the results of each color to determine of the color affected the taste. 
5. Repeat and record results with each color. 
6. Repeat the experiment for another 2-3 times.

Variables

The results of the experiment or in other words, whether the taste was affected or not will be the dependent variable. 
The independent variable in this experiment is the taste of the "normal" colored food.
The controlled variables will be the age and gender of the subjects, as long as with the colors of all of the food. Ways to control these aspects is to use the same colors with each food, do not use different colors for each because the participants might be attracted to one color over another. Also washing their mouths out will help the psychologically throughout the test because such a young age is being tested, be sure that the food or drink being used is liked by all of them.

Analysis

When tasting the foods the participants said that the Blue was their favorite with all of the foods except the applesauce. Red was the "best tasting" food color in the applesauce. All of  participants tasting the food refused to eat some of the colored foods because it looked spoiled or rotten, this occurred with the green dyed foods. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, the color of the food was a factor of the taste of said food. Sight and color plays a part of the sense of taste and most kids were drawn to their favorite color or in other words the most appealing color.