Tasting > Organoleptic characteristics > Sight

The sight of a foodstuff may give rise in all of us to a whole series of unconditioned  reactions, we are thinking of the stimulus of hunger or even the stimulus of appetite! If we do not see what we are eating, we may be mistrustful; if you try to put some food in your mouth with your eyes blindfolded, it is natural to be hesitant. By the same token, seeing what we eat can induce us to express an opinion which could compromise the whole tasting session. Having on your plate a blue or purple food could put us off trying it, whereas a cream coloured or pale brown food will certainly give strong stimulation.

The colour of food is without a doubt the most important visual characteristic and may have fundamentally important  psychological aspects. Sensory analysis, being of necessity totally objective, must not be conditioned by the appearance of a food, but must express enough partial judgments so that they can be evaluated as a whole. In oil tasting there are conflicting opinions on the need for a visual evaluation.

Those who have experience of oil knows well that visual judgment is not fundamental but through it, merits and defects of an extra virgin can be noted; shaking the oil in the bottle can, for example, give us some interesting indications on the cleanliness and the “roundness” of the oil.
It is important that experience of oil is ongoing in order to sharpen the eye in tasting.
Those who have no experience in tasting would be advised not to take into account the colour of an oil in their evaluation: our first tastings may in fact be conditioned by our consumer habits, so we may tend to reject oils which are too green or yellow as they do not conform to our standards. Each of us has his or her own way of judging the appearance of a food which can limit the presumed objectivity of the tasting session.

back to organoleptic characteristics