Focus groups were conducted to understand children's use of emotion words and emojis to describe reactions to foods. A total of 17 children, ages 8–11, in three groups of 4–8, were asked to use words and emojis to describe how they felt in response to self‐selected favorite, least favorite, and “just okay” foods before, during, and after recalled consumption occasions. Participants also provided responses to three food interventions before tasting, after tasting, and after seeing product packaging. In addition, the group discussed emotion words and emoji valence. Although children initially were concerned with product characteristics, such as flavor, when explaining their food preferences, participants readily used both words and emojis in discussion and activities to communicate how foods made them feel. Words and emojis not considered for further testing were either infrequently used, redundant (based on children's usage), or not used to describe a feeling in response to a stimulus. Based on children's use of the words and emojis through discussion and activities, a list of 51 words and 38 emojis were considered appropriate for further emotion testing with children ages 8–11. Practical applications This research addresses the need for a food emotion tool for use with children. The findings show that children are able to use both words and emojis to describe their emotions in response to varied products. The resulting lists of words and emojis can be used in subsequent quantitative testing with children.

With the continued growth of emotion research in the consumer sciences, it has become necessary to investigate approaches which are appropriate for use with children. The purpose of this study was to compare children's liking and emotional responses to food images and actual foods. In both studies, 8 foods were used as stimuli (fresh spinach, baby carrots, orange juice, white grapes, cheddar cheese, chocolate graham snacks, lychee gummy candy, and white bread). In the first study, children answered questions about liking and emotions in response to food images. Emotion responses were collected using a check‐all‐that‐apply format with emojis and words as variables. In the second study, children were asked liking and emotion questions after seeing the sample and after tasting the sample. Overall liking scores were higher for actual foods compared with food images. Additionally, testing with actual foods resulted in increased use of positive emojis and words, and decreased use of negative emojis and words for both food appearance and post‐taste emotions. The largest differences in liking and emotion results were seen in response to the lychee gummy candy, which most children had not tried before. The children's responses differed between a conceptual evaluation (image) versus actual evaluation (appearance, taste). Practical applications This study illustrates the influence of stimulus type on study outcomes when testing with children. In this study, the children's responses differed between a conceptual evaluation (image only) versus literally seeing and tasting the product, and are therefore not interchangeable when conducting emotion testing with children.