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The real reason why oranges are sold in red net bags?

2024-08-25 16:56:00, Kuriozitete CNA

The real reason why oranges are sold in red net bags?

Illustrative photo

Have you ever wondered why oranges are often sold in those weird red net bags? Well it's a trick used by food manufacturers and supermarkets to "trick" your senses.

A red or orange plastic net around the fruit helps to give the impression that the orange peel is a more orange color, making it appear more attractive to consumers.

If the fruit is unripe, colored netting will also minimize its greenness and enhance its color, making it appear ripe and tastier.

Similarly, lemons are often placed in yellow net bags to enhance their natural color. If they were placed in red bags, they would look orange and not so attractive.

The principle is based on the confetti illusion, a visual phenomenon where the perception of colors is strongly influenced by the surrounding context.

In this optical illusion, a neutral colored ball is placed inside a grid of different colored lines. When lines of a certain color are in the foreground, the color of the ball appears to blend with that of the lines.

In a new study, psychologist Karl R. Gegenfurtner of Giessen University in Germany details how the supermarket's orange bag uses the confetti illusion.

He writes: "I buy orange juice from my favorite fruit seller Helga every Saturday at the local market. One day, she didn't have any beautiful ripe oranges, as one would expect in the German summer. I stopped at a supermarket, and saw oranges in a red mesh bag that looked quite ripe. At home, when I took the oranges out of the net, a miracle happened, every orange, which looked beautiful inside the net, turned a deep shade of green!” said Gegenfurtner.

Staying true to the scientific method, he also presented evidence to verify his claim.

"We conclude that only color assimilation gives a strong effect on color appearance, turning a green-looking orange into a beautiful orange.

Needless to say, fruit sellers realized this long ago. Looking around in supermarkets it is easy to see that fruits and vegetables (eg, lemons, onions, zucchini, or even potatoes) are usually packed in nets that have the color of perfect specimens," the study concludes.

The paper explains that the confetti illusion is based on the principle that our brains are programmed to process peripheral vision and color perception.

Basically, our brain aims to provide us with a smooth experience that can be understood as effectively as possible. Likewise, our visual system is hardwired to perceive uniformity and smooth transitions. When the red grid is placed over an orange, our brain merges the adjacent colors to simplify what we see.

Whether this trick increases sales of oranges is unknown, though we'd encourage researchers to take on the task of finding out.

The new study is published in the journal i-Perception./ CNA