Consumer Attitudes Towards Color and Marbling of Fresh Pork Defining Color

Humans use color to judge the ‘value’ or quality of a product, often comparing and choosing a product based on expectations and past experiences. Choices made based on visual evaluation, which requires no physical contact, pose very little risk; therefore, when a product does not meet ‘color expectations’, it is an easy decision deem a product ‘unacceptable’. Color is produced when energy in the visible range (400 to 700 nm) is perceived by the eye (Hunter 1986). The energy that produces color is contained in light. ‘Pigments’ are molecules that absorb (subtract) some of the wavelengths from the light that illuminates an object. Wavelengths of the light that are absorbed are not observed whereas the wavelengths of light that are reflected produce the color we see. In order for a ‘color’ to be visible, it must be contained in the reflected light, meaning the ‘color’ must be present in the original light directed at the object Both the pigments in the product and the light directed at the product determine how color of the object appears.