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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influences of the interactions of taste, colour and labelling on sensory perception, liking and identification of saffroned products.

The consumer and discrimination tests (N=120, 18, 25, 78, for Experiments 1–4, respectively) were conducted. The analyses of discrimination tests were performed using the Thurstonian model and R-index. The results from consumer studies were analysed using the Kruskal–Wallis test, penalty analysis and correlation matrix.

The study revealed that saffron can interact with the perception of sour and bitter taste and has no significant effects on the sweetness. The colour and labelling generated expectations for quality and sweetness of the samples. When the disparity between the expectation and actual experience was occurred resulted in contrast/assimilation effects on the hedonic ratings and negatively impacted consumer acceptability of the product.

This study showed that the visual cues can modulate the expectation for particular sensory perceptions and also affect the hedonic experiences. Saffron adulteration can be identified by the consumers and can result in a significant decrease in the acceptability of the products. Hence, the practice of substituting saffron with ingredients with a similar colour in these products can be detrimental for business. Additionally, it was revealed that saffron colour is associated with the expected and actual sweet taste perception. Therefore, it is possible to manipulate yellow colour cues to reduce sweeteners in different food products that contain saffron.

The sensory characteristics and consumer perception of saffron have been rarely studied. This study revealed that flavour perception and quality determination of saffroned foods involves the combinations of different sensory modalities and cognitive (expectancy) inputs.