Visual presentation of food can influence appetite and emotions

Visual attention refers to the cognitive process of selectively targeting certain visual stimuli in the environment, while others are ignored. In the case of food, it also has a strong influence on the taste, perception of the experience, and emotions related to food. The primary aim of this paper is to investigate how the visual presentation of food (burger) prepared under two conditions using identical raw materials, and a third condition utilizing a more nutritionally balanced composition (vegetarian), with varying visibility of vegetables (colored food elements), affects consumer preferences. Alongside traditional Tablet Assisted Personal Interviewing (TAPI), biometric techniques including Eye Tracking, Facereading, and Electroencephalography (EEG) were employed to capture unconscious emotional responses. We found statistically significant differences in emotional response due to the visualization of food. We also found that how food looks has a direct effect on how people think it smells and tastes. A significant discovery is that these disparities were validated not only at a declarative level but also at a subconscious level, offering a novel perspective on the perception of visual design and food arrangement, as well as enhancing targeting and application in the marketing management of foodservice establishments.