Your Fork (and Knife and Spoon) Could Be Changing the Way Your Food Tastes--Really!

by Haley Goldberg




CN Digital Studio
CN Digital Studio

We know that packaging, lighting, and glass size can affect how much you eat and drink, but can the utensil you eat with change how your food tastes?

Foodies have been buzzing over a new study in Flavour that shows the weight, color, size, and shape of cutlery affects the taste of food--making your next spoonful of Pinkberry a much more thoughtful experience than you realized! When you pick up your eating utensil of choice, remember these three things: weight, color, and utensil.

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Weight: According to researchers at the University of Oxford (who used yogurt as the test food), a heavier plastic spoon makes food taste sweeter, while a lighter plastic spoon creates a more expensive and enjoyable taste.

Color: Research has also shown eating popcorn from a blue bowl seems saltier than if eaten from a white bowl. If your food is the same color as the utensil (example: white yogurt on white spoon), you'll experience a more pleasant tasting experience.

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Utensil: The type of utensil is just as important: The saltiness of a piece of cheese seemed to increase when eaten right off a plastic knife compared with a plastic fork, spoon, or toothpick.

So what does this mean for you? Not only do you have a new snack-break experiment (gather round, coworkers!) but also a fresh way to look at food. Visual cues--such as utensil color--affect taste, which makes eating more about our perceptions than we thought. Plus, paying close attention to your eating experience is known as "mindful eating"--a tool that studies suggest could help with serving-size moderation.

Do you ever think about the color and types of utensils you use while eating?


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