The four lamp types displayed significant varying opinions of what the best food lighting is. In order of most-to-least favored is 1)MR-16 halogen, 2)incandescent, 3)fluorescent, and 4)full spectrum.
| votes/lamps |
 MR-16 |
Flourecent |
Full-spectrum |
Incadencent |
| best food lighting |
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| flatters yellow objects |
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| flatters green objects |
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| flatters red objects |
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| flatters white meat (fish & chicken) |
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| flatters red meat (beef) |
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Attributes of incandescent are warm, yellow lighting that the exhibit/questionnaire results rival the appealing aspects of MR-16.
Although the full spectrum lamp was not used at the grocery stores observed, we were curious to test how it performed along side the others. The study proved that full-spectrum would not be a good choice for food lighting. The best attribute of this lamp regarding food is its ability to flatter red meat. Full spectrum lamps are advertised to make colors appear as they do in daylight, and exhibit whiter and brighter light than incandescent bulbs. However, we do not recommend using this lamp to light food.
Fluorescent lamps did not prove to be very well favored, with the exception of this lamp chosen because it is what one was "most used to." Fluorescent light was least successful in lighting red meat and green produce.
Prior to the questionnaire/exhibit study illustrated here, photographs were taken in similar boxes with prints shown to people with the simple question asked of "which image they like best and why?" This method proved unreliable due to the automatic color correction applied to the prints during developing, and additional color alteration during scanning and printing. These photographs were also taken matching the light readings taken at two grocery stores. We decided that matching the light levels at the stores with those in the boxes was not as relevant as simply displaying the food with the chosen lamps. We determined that a real-life exhibit of food lighting was most critical to discover what influences people's perception.
As the study progressed, we found that defining "successfu" was necessary since this topic is largely based on perception rather than facts. In order to produce workable data and results, we had to remove the association of grocery store lighting design and focus primarily on the specific types of lamps used.
An added complication emerged in trying to determine what sways people's perception of what they "like" about the food they see in a grocery store are the attributes of space, finishes, music, crowdedness, etc. In order to move forward with the study, these factors were necessarily removed as well as the association with lighting in particular grocery stores.
