Cutlery 'can influence food taste' - Sporks at the ready

This food article on the BBC got us thinking, what extra flavour would a Spork bring to the table? The research suggests that the size, weight, shape and colour of your cutlery can all have an effect on flavours, even before they've gone into our mouths to be heartily consumed. Over 100 students took part in three experiments with the findings being publish in this 'taste of cutlery' journal.

Some of the main findings concluded that food tasted sweeter when served on smaller spoons and that colour had a large factor; white yoghurt eaten from a white spoon was rated sweeter than white yoghurt tasted on a black spoon. It was also found that when participants were offered cheese on a knife, fork and then toothpick, they found that the cheese on the knife tasted saltiest.

Light My Fire Spork

The experiment seems a bit 'out there' at first, but when you genuinely think about it, it makes sense in a rather eccentric sort of way. Our brains link what we think to be often arbitrary factors and push them together to form perceptions, culminating in a "multisensory experience" as explained by Prof Charles Spence and Dr Vanessa Harrar. Now that I think about it, I'd be inclined to link say a wide rounded spoon shape to a more heartier, wholesome flavour and on the flip side I'd associate a thinner, edged like shape with sharper flavours like salt, sugar etc. It all sounds barmy, but when you deconstruct these links, it tends to make sense!

Going back to that opening sentence, I'm off to dip my Spork into something tasty and see what delectable flavour it reveals...