An April 2021 study by University of South Florida said,
“… being able to see a food item before smelling it helps in processing the scent cue with greater ease, which in turn enhances the food taste perception,"
"Basically, scents play a very critical role in influencing taste perceptions; however, interestingly, people can process a scent better in their brains when the scent is preceded by a corresponding visual cue, such as color."
"We tested this to get a better understanding of how the human sensory processing system evaluates a sequence of visual and scent-related cues,"