A first survey of the public’s colour preferences for four processed foods as major sources of salt intake in Japan

Abstract

The promotion of sodium-reduced food products is an international movement that targets the prevention of several non-communicable diseases. Although visual presentation of food is accompanied by changes in taste sensitivity, the taste of food labelled with green or blue marks for emphasising salt reduction in Japan remains unexplored. Thus, we identify the public’s colour preferences for sodium-reduced foods in Japan. We conducted an online survey of 1200 participants aged 20 to 80 in 2023. For all four food types, the preference for sodium-reduced markers with blue or green was higher in the order of the action, preparation, and precontemplation behaviour change stages. We found that ‘good taste’ colours varied depending on the type of food product and were consistent for both regular and sodium-reduced food products. As for the difference between ‘green’ and ‘blue’, the taste ranking was low for regular food products and slightly higher for sodium-reduced food products. In the future, food providers can enhance the desirability of their food by prioritising visual perspective as a secondary aspect by considering consumers' behaviour change stages, especially when promoting sodium-reduced food products.