When Cadbury Dairy Milk moved to a new curvy, rounded shape, did they change the recipe to make it sweeter?
Does the shape of the food we eat influence our perception of its taste?
Yes, it does.
Let us understand this in more detail with an interesting tale of geometry, economics, and gastrophysics.
In the 1990s, Cadbury Dairy Milk had an angular shape of each piece. Two decades later, in the 2010s, Cadbury in the UK changed the shape of its Dairy Milk to be more rounded on the sides and even on the top.
And then, all Hell broke loose.
The public felt that the company had made the New Dairy Milk way too sweet. People complained they were adding less cocoa and more chocolate to it now.
In reality, the company had done no such thing! There had been absolutely no change in the recipe of the chocolate.
Cadbury even went all out to clarify to the people that the beloved Dairy Milk was still the same.
Why did Cadbury introduce the new curvy Dairy Milk?
The answer lies in a complex yet straightforward mix of geometry, economics, and gastrophysics.
For the same dimensions, curved shapes tend to have smaller volumes than angular, cubical, or cuboidal shapes. This means for the same dimensions, there is less chocolate. With this small move, Cadbury saved 4g per Dairy Milk bar!
It may be a very negligible volume difference in one piece or one bar of chocolate. However, when you add up the millions of chocolate bars Cadbury manufactures and sells each year, it would be a significantly huge cost savings. So, the geometrical move made economic sense.
Why did the people feel the New Dairy Milk was sweeter?
The answer to this is a simple principle of gastrophysics.
Gastrophysics is a field of science that combines gastronomy (the knowledge & understanding of everything food) and psychophysics (the branch of psychology dealing with the relationship between physical stimuli and mental phenomena).
As Professor Charles Spence, author of Gastrophysics, explains – rounded shapes tend to taste sweeter on our tongues.
The generalization has now been documented across a range of food and beverage products. Sweetness is associated with roundness while bitterness is associated with angularity.
Professor Jools Simner conducted intriguing research showing that the same food will be rated as tasting significantly more bitter if served in an angular shape format, whereas serving the same food in a rounded format, say a sphere, can help enhance perceived sweetness slightly.
One plausible explanation for this observation is that angular shapes are potentially perceived by our brains as weapons. Our brain’s fear circuits have been shown to light up within a fraction of a millisecond upon seeing angular shapes. Angularity and bitterness, from an evolutionary perspective, are associated with potentially poisonous foods. Comparatively, people will usually demonstrate a lot more valenced response to sweetness and rounded shapes. However, this is just a possible explanation and more studies are needed to confirm the hypothesis.
How do visual cues change taste perceptions?
If a company changes the color of the product, it can change the perceived taste.
If a company changes the color of the packaging, it can change the perceived taste.
So, when you are making desserts, make them round. With the round shape, you could get away with adding less sugar, leading to cost savings and healthier eating habits!
