Food packaging design has become a key component of the marketing mix of companies to ensure the long-term success of their products, and to convey information that set apart their products from competitors. The aim of this review is to critically discuss the role of food packaging on children's diet. Food package design plays a key role in attracting children and parents' attention, shaping product associations, and influencing their purchase decisions. Packaging elements attracting children's attention and misleading health-related visual and textual cues may encourage children and their parents to choose energy-dense food products with excessive content of sugar, fat, and sodium. Results from this review suggest that comprehensive packaging regulations are necessary to protect children's health and encourage healthier eating habits from early years. Such regulations should go beyond products targeted at children, making informed decisions easier to encourage healthier choices, and including restrictions on the use of health-related cues on all products, as they ultimately influence the diet and the food available in the household.

The high availability of products with high sugar content, particularly among those targeted as children, has been identified as one of the factors that contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic. For this reason, product reformulation has been recommended as one of the strategies that can be implemented to achieve short-term reductions in children's sugar intake. In this context, the objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using cross-modal (taste-odor-texture) interactions as a strategy for reducing the sugar content of products targeted at children, using milk desserts as case study. A series of 5 vanilla milk desserts were formulated: a control sample with 12% added sugar and 4 sugar-reduced samples (7% added sugar) prepared following a 2x2 experimental design by varying vanilla (0.4% and 0.6% w/w) and starch (4.3% and 4.7% w/w) concentrations. A total of 112 children (8 to 12 years old) tasted the desserts and performed a dynamic sensory characterization task using either temporal check-all-that-apply or temporal dominance of sensations. In addition, they assessed the overall liking of all samples. Results showed that sugar-reduced samples did not significantly differ from the control sample in terms of their average overall liking scores. However, individual differences in children's hedonic reaction were found; three clusters of children with distinctive liking patterns were identified. The increase in vanilla and starch concentration led to an increase in overall liking for over 80% of the children. Sensory dynamic profiles revealed significant but subtle differences among samples. Results from the present work suggest that cross-modal interactions could contribute to minimizing the sensory changes caused by sugar reduction, which could enable to achieve larger reductions if implemented in the context of gradual sugar reduction programs.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate children's hedonic sensitivity to sugar reduction in three dairy products: vanilla milk desserts, chocolate-flavored milk, and vanilla yogurt. For each product, a regular sample and five samples with different reduction in added-sugar content were formulated. The regular sample contained the sugar content of commercial products available in the marketplace. The reduction in added-sugar content ranged between 10.0 and 41.0%. A total of 126 children (8 to 13 years old) participated in the study. An A-not A test was used to evaluate children's hedonic sensitivity to sugar reduction. Sugar reductions up to 27% in chocolate flavored milk and vanilla yogurt, and up to 19% in vanilla milk desserts, did not cause significant changes in children's hedonic reaction. These results confirm that sugar-reduction strategies can be easily implemented in the dairy industry without significant risk of affecting sample appreciation and market share.

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Sugar intake among children has raised concern worldwide as it exceeds nutritional recommendations. Sugar contributes to the daily energy intake, without providing additional nutritional value and is associated with several negative health outcomes. Sugars added to foods during industrial processing have been identified as the main source of sugar in children's diets. The present work critically discusses the role of the food industry in contributing to children's excessive sugar intake worldwide, and the strategies that have been encouraged or implemented to reduce the sugar content in products targeted at children. The risk of the current sugar reduction practices in products targeted at children is discussed based on recent scientific evidence. Children's heightened preference for sweetness may not justify the availability of highly sugary products for children.Although research suggests that children readily accept less sweet products, there is still some wariness in the food industry to reduce sweetness intensity. This has strengthened the use of non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS), focusing on maintaining the sweetness level.However, emerging evidence suggests that this may not be the best approach. Practical applicationsResearch shows that significant sugar reduction is feasible in products targeted at children without affecting hedonic perception, even if sweetness is reduced. The scientific evidence discussed in the present work challenges traditional approaches to sugar reduction and gives real life, practical recommendations for practitioners. All stakeholders (industry, food and health researchers, and policy makers) involved in the reformulation of products targeted at children are encouraged to prioritize children's best interest and protect their right to a healthy diet. | INTRODUCTIONChildhood overweight and obesity is one of the most important public health problems worldwide, affecting 5.9% of children under 5 and 18.4% of 5-19 year old children (UNICEF, 2019). Overweight and obesity during childhood has negative short-term and long-term effects on health and wellbeing, including increased risk for cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and cancer, as well as increased likelihood of suffering depression and other psychological