Fairness-Based Tasks for Assessing Children’s Perceptions of Food Quantities and Associations with Portion Selection

Abstract

It is critical to develop ecologically valid experimental methods to assess consumers’ food-related behaviors. Ad libitum approaches are often used but may not be appropriate for studies with children or with products that are not typically consumed until the individual feels full. The current study presents novel methods to assess children’s size perception and portion preference for gummy candies. In the first study, 62 children (30 boys, 32 girls) aged 6 to 9 years completed two matching tasks: one using pictures on a computer screen, and a similar task where the products were physically manipulated. Results of the two matching tasks were correlated, demonstrating that a computer-based approach could be used to predict the factors influencing children’s perception of food amount: the number, size, and shape of pieces. In the second study, a portioning measure was developed to investigate whether the factors identified in the matching tasks were confirmed in a task that more closely represented portion selection in the real world. The effects observed in the matching tasks could not be replicated in the portioning task. The size of each item had no significant impact on the portion selection, suggesting that it may be possible to reduce the size of pieces in snacks where multiple pieces are typically consumed without negatively impacting perceived quantity in children, thus offering a promising strategy to nudge children toward choosing smaller portions.

Marketing Strategy, Serving Size, and Nutrition Information of Popular Children’s Food Packages in Taiwan

“…In the United Kingdom and Ireland, childhood obesity prevention campaigns have identified serving size as a key issue in preventing child obesity and have emphasized the importance of offering appropriately sized food to children [43,44]. Ferrage et al also suggested that because there is no association between the serving sizes of snacks and the portion selection among young children, reducing the size of snacks may be an effective strategy when providing snacks for young children [45]. In the future, it could be considered that stipulate different serving sizes for children food should be established.…”

Effects of snack portion size on anticipated and experienced hunger, eating enjoyment, and perceived healthiness among children

“…This would provide a more granular measure and avoid potential floor or ceiling effects. Future research should also examine apportionable foods [43] or foods sold in small pre-cut portions, such as candies, for which it is the number of units rather than the portion size that drives portion size perception and preferences (for example: [44]). Similarly, investigating the role of the shape of the portions could be interesting.…”