Near-metameric illumination changes affect visually perceived food attributes

Food color may signal vital food attributes, e.g., ripeness (yellow) or rottenness (brown) in a banana. Previous studies on the influence of color appearance on perceived food quality have typically used 2D images and confounded appearance changes with other factors. Here, using immersive viewing of real 3D naturalistic fruits and vegetables, we demonstrate that near-metameric changes in the illumination spectrum are sufficient to drive changes in perceived food quality, via changes in object color appearance alone, keeping all other contextual factors constant. Both hue and saturation changes induce perceived positive attribute changes, varying with the object and individual participant.