A cross-cultural analysis of children's vegetable preferences

Although it is well evident that a healthy diet rich in fruit and vegetables could prevent a number of major chronic diseases, national and international guidelines concerning their intake are not being reached by a large percentage of the population, including children. Thus, it is of interest to investigate how the consumption of this food group by children could be increased. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of serving style on the consumption of a raw snack vegetable (daikon) and the influence of its exposure on liking and intake of the vegetable. A group of 185 children 3–5 years old participated in the study. Two kindergartens served as intervention groups, while the third was assigned to be the control group of the study (n = 50). The intervention groups were repeatedly exposed to one of three different serving styles of daikon: sticks (n = 42), triangles (n = 46) or grated (n = 47), and they were all visited 7 times during the exposure period, on the same frequency (twice per week). Familiarity and liking of the target vegetable, daikon, and six other vegetables (cucumber, celery, celeriac, broccoli, cauliflower and beetroot) were measured at baseline, post-intervention and two follow up sessions (3- and 6-month) to investigate the likelihood of generalisation effects. Intake of daikon was measured at all control sessions and exposures. Moreover, children were asked to rank their favourite serving style of daikon and beetroot, among triangle, stick and grated, towards understanding the influence of shape on the efficacy of the exposure. The results revealed significant changes between liking and intake of daikon for the groups of triangles and sticks and the control group (p < 0.05). The group that received grated daikon did not show significant differences in liking and at intake levels during the exposures but performed well in the long-term. Throughout the exposure period, intake levels followed an overall increasing pattern, with all the groups to demonstrate a decrease of their intake at the last session, which was not found significant for the triangle group. Mere exposure was efficient towards increasing liking and intake of the novel vegetable with all the shapes to deliver positive results, but based on this study no particular serving style can be recommended.

“…The model run for the ranking data was reduced to a simpler one, as the fixed factors of age and gender were not found significant. This is in line with previous studies [ 37 , 75 , 99 ].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 94%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimising Repeated Exposure: Determining Optimal Stimulus Shape for Introducing a Novel Vegetable among Children

Karagiannaki

Ritz

Andreasen

et al. 2021

“…Culture is an important aspect that affects acceptance of novel food, as the determinants of rejection have been found to vary between populations. The cross-cultural study of Sandvik et al found different texture drivers of liking a high-fibre biscuit among children of different nationalities [38], while Estay et al demonstrated that children of different origin varied significantly in their liking scores for six vegetables [85].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimising Repeated Exposure: Determining Optimal Exposure Frequency for Introducing a Novel Vegetable among Children

Karagiannaki

Ritz

Jensen

et al. 2021

Fruit and vegetables are important components of a healthy diet, but unfortunately many children are not consuming enough to meet the recommendations. Therefore, it is crucial to develop strategies towards increasing the acceptance of this food group. This study aims to investigate the effect of different repeated exposure frequencies on fruit and vegetable acceptance using a novel vegetable, daikon, among 3–6-year-old children. One hundred and fifty-nine children participated in this study. Eight kindergarten teams were assigned to one of the following groups: Three different intervention groups with varying exposure frequencies, but all receiving seven exposures: Twice a week (n = 47), once a week (n = 32) and once every second week (n = 30), and a control group (n = 50). Liking and familiarity of daikon and other vegetables (cucumber, celery, celeriac, broccoli, cauliflower and beetroot) were assessed at baseline, post-intervention and two follow up sessions (3 and 6 months) to test for potential generalisation effects and observe the longevity of the obtained effects. Intake of daikon was measured at all exposures and test sessions. Results showed significant increases (p ≤ 0.05) in liking and intake of daikon for all three frequencies and the control group. Over the exposures, intake of daikon increased until the 4th exposure for all the groups, where a plateau was reached. No systematic generalisation effects were found. Repeated exposure was a successful approach to increase liking and intake of a novel vegetable with all exposure frequencies to be effective, and no particular exposure frequency can be recommended. Even the few exposures the control group received were found to be sufficient to improve intake and liking over 6 months (p ≤ 0.05), indicating that exposures to low quantities of an unfamiliar vegetable may be sufficient.

“…Cross-cultural differences are known to often impact consumer perception and preferences with regard to foods in adults [22], however not systematically [23]. Estay et al [24] recently reported larger effects of culture than effects of gender and age on liking for vegetables in Chinese, Northern American and Chilean children, while Zhang [25] reported no cultural differences in Northern American and Chinese children's preferences for package designs. Few cross-cultural studies on school children's characterisation and preference for food samples have been conducted within Europe (for a study on taste, see Lanfer et al [26]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) method is commonly used to define which sensory attributes consumers perceive in food products [28]. Although less frequently used with children, the CATA method has shown to be an appropriate, child-friendly approach to get insights on how children perceive food products as well as to identify the most relevant sensory attributes that affect children's hedonic perception [24,[29][30][31]. The focus of the present study is to explore the role of individual characteristics such as food neophobia and cultural background for describing foods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Yuck, This Biscuit Looks Lumpy! Neophobic Levels and Cultural Differences Drive Children’s Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) Descriptions and Preferences for High-Fibre Biscuits

Sandvik

Laureati

Jilani

et al. 2020

Food neophobia influences food choice in school-aged children. However, little is known about how children with different degrees of food neophobia perceive food and to what extent different sensory attributes drive their liking. This paper explores liking and sensory perception of fibre-rich biscuits in school-aged children (n = 509, age 9–12 years) with different degrees of food neophobia and from five different European countries (Finland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom). Children tasted and rated their liking of eight commercial biscuits and performed a Check-All-That-Apply task to describe the samples and further completed a Food Neophobia Scale. Children with a higher degree of neophobia displayed a lower liking for all tasted biscuits (p < 0.001). Cross-cultural differences in liking also appeared (p < 0.001). A negative correlation was found between degree of neophobia and the number of CATA-terms used to describe the samples (r = −0.116, p = 0.009). Penalty analysis showed that degree of food neophobia also affected drivers of biscuit liking, where particularly appearance terms were drivers of disliking for neophobic children. Cross-cultural differences in drivers of liking and disliking were particularly salient for texture attributes. Further research should explore if optimizing appearance attributes could be a way to increase liking of fibre-rich foods in neophobic children.