Importance of Food Presentation

Interview about the importance of Visuality in Food Presentation

Last week I made an interview with the Research and Development Manager of V.Besana S.p.A. company.

First of all, I would like to give brief information about V. Besana S.p.A. company.

Besana Group is an Italian family owned company, established in 1921. With a turnover of about 132Mln €, 20.000Mt of raw materials processed per year, today Besana Group is the largest Italian company and among the top in Europe for production, processing and commercialization of Nuts, Dried Fruit, Seeds, Chocolate and Snacks.

I made a brief interview with Mr. Agostino Improta about the Importance of Visuality of Food Presentation" and I learned very interesting information about the visual culture in food presentation. 

What is the importance of visuality in food presentation?

I believe People eat food with their eyes before they they eat with their mouth due to the reason visuality is one of the most important element that we take into the consideration in food presentation.

Food must have a nice appearance after good taste. It is very simple if it is not nice, they don’t buy.

How do you provide a proper and visually attractive product?

First of all, we try to receive the feedback of our team. They are experts in sensory testing.

We are lucky that our products are colorful (especially dried fruits). Firstly, we pay attention to provide good balance in color. We are trying to produce more clear products rather than dark appereance

For example if we are talking about mixed products (dried fruit-nuts mixtures)  you have to have a good balance in color.

These aspects have to be linked with a good taste. That is what we consider in order to prepare a visually attractive product.

What are the most important points that you take into consideration in order to provide a visually attractive product?

It is better if I answer this question with specializing dried fruit and nuts sector. The most important thing that we take into consideration is the market of reference.

We in Besana Company, differentiate the presentation of food from market to market. For example for United Kingdom market, we prefer to emphasize “natural image”. Due to the reason we don’t prefer very colorful products.

But in Belgium market; consumers are expecting more “sugared” taste. That’s why we are mostly selecting colored products

Could you please share some examples about the importance of visuality on food presentations from your experiences?

There are many examples that I can share with you but the most interesting examples can be in Apricots and Mulberries

For example; naturally dried apricots have dark brown color. But people prefer; dried apricots with sulphur application. Because sulphured dried apricots have more shinny, orange color. Although it has a chemical application, people prefer sulphured ones just because of the appearance of the products.

 Another interesting example that I can share with you is Mulberries. European consumers do not prefer to consume dried mulberries because it has an image like a worm!

That can be another example which showing that people eat before with their eyes. 

What are the strategies to obtain visually attractive product?

The most important strategy that the brands are using is the packaging design. For example; If you are producing dried fruit & nuts mixtures. People want to see what is inside the product. Due to the reason, brands prefer transparent packages in order to show the products inside the packages. That also shows the importance of food presentation. There are many other strategies that the companies are using for the food presentation.