When shoppers enter your supermarket, they are probably welcomed with the sights of your floral and fresh produce sections and the appetizing smells of your bakery. The fresh foods beckon to customers and if the foods look fresh, they will move quickly.

Color is a major factor in buying decisions. According to research from the Seoul International Color Expo, 93 percent of customers list visual factors as their top consideration when shopping and 85 percent of shoppers say color accounts for more than half of the factors they consider when purchasing a product. In addition, the Pantone Color Institute has found 70 – 85 percent of purchase decisions are made in the store.

Your shoppers may enter the store with a list, but impulse buying decisions are made in the aisles themselves. If your produce has bright colors, they look fresh and filled with flavor and their appearance can drive impulse buys. On the other hand, if your produce has dull colors, it’s easy to walk past them on the way to the milk.

Color is the language of fresh, with bold and vibrant hues signaling newly-picked produce. Getting the right light on food is crucial to delivering the message of fresh.

Lush Produce, Marbled Meat: One LED Light Away

For supermarkets to put their best foot forward in their fresh food departments—produce, seafood and meat—the right light is critical. Customers want to see their food in its natural color to view the actual freshness of the product.

If the marbling in the meat looks yellow or the ice looks dull, then the message of fresh becomes compromised. Under the right LED light, meats will take on their natural deep red with rich white marbling; produce becomes noticed for its lush green, as if it was picked that morning.

Point being, produce looks fresh under natural sunlight. Conventional light sources have long struggled to replicate sunlight’s effects. Fluorescent lamps, in particular, are notoriously poor at color rendering. Halogen lamps are heavy on warm tones and they emit quite a bit of heat, which doesn’t help fresh produce. The color spectrum from metal halide lights is almost as weak as fluorescent lights and also very weak on warm tones.

With modern LED technology, you can finally bring the sun into your store. The natural colors of fresh food shine under LEDs.

Why LEDs Deliver Better Light

LEDs aren’t like other light sources. Before LEDs, light sources relied on heating filaments or exciting gases inside glass bulbs to create light. LEDs, on the other hand, are illuminated by the movement of electrons in a semiconductor material. This crucial difference allows for some more lighting options better quality light for retailers with LED lighting.

Light falls on a spectrum and conventional light sources emit light at fixed points along the spectrum. Since LEDs are made from electronics, they can be tuned to showcase the natural colors in fresh foods.

For greater visual appeal, LEDs can bring out the reds in meat, emphasize the “just picked” appearance of fruit and vegetables and highlight the cool silver scales of the fresh-caught fish. The right lights don’t change the colors of flowers and fresh food—however, they show the foods’ natural true color and highlight the freshness of the product.

Your perimeter aisles house your high-margin fresh food departments. Maximize the power of your perimeter with lighting that showcases the natural colors of your fresh food products with the right LED lighting. Learn more at supermarkets.amerlux.com.