Familial aggregation and socio-demographic correlates of taste preferences in European children

Abstract

Background: Studies on aggregation of taste preferences among children and their siblings as well as their parents are scarce. We investigated the familial aggregation of taste preferences as well as the effect of sex, age, country of residence and education on variation in taste preferences in the pan-European I.Family cohort. Method: Thirteen thousand one hundred sixty-five participants from 7 European countries, comprising 2,230 boys <12 years, 2,110 girls <12 years, 1,682 boys ≥12 years, 1,744 girls ≥12 years and 5,388 parents, completed a Food and Beverage Preference Questionnaire containing 63 food items representing the taste modalities sweet, bitter, salty and fatty. We identified food items that represent the different taste qualities using factor analysis. On the basis of preference ratings for these food and drink items, a preference score for each taste was calculated for children and parents individually. Sibling and parent-child correlations for taste preference scores were calculated. The proportion of variance in children's preference scores that could be explained by their parents' preference scores and potential correlates including sex, age and parental educational was explored. Results: Mean taste preferences for sweet, salty and fatty decreased and for bitter increased with age. Taste preference scores correlated stronger between siblings than between children and parents. Children's salty preference scores could be better explained by country than by family members. Children's fatty preference scores could be better explained by family members than by country. Age explained 17% of the variance in sweet and 16% of the variance in fatty taste preference. Sex and education were not associated with taste preference scores. Conclusion: Taste preferences are correlated between siblings. Country could explain part of the variance of salty preference scores in children which points to a cultural influence on salt preference. Further, age also explained a relevant proportion of variance in sweet and fatty preference scores.

Association of Infant Feeding Patterns with Taste Preferences in European Children and Adolescents: A Retrospective Latent Profile Analysis

“…The food and beverages included in our analyses were chosen based on factor analyses conducted by Jilani and colleagues [55] that assigned foods to respective taste modalities. In accordance with the factor analyses, we computed scores for the liking of three specific taste modalities: sweet, fatty and bitter, by calculating the mean liking of the foods and drinks included in each of the 3 categories.…”

“…Moreover, the parents of half of our sample had a high educational status, a fact which might also bias the results with regard to socio-economic status. In addition, we did not have information on other confounding factors such as the role of the maternal diet during breastfeeding and the family diet, factors that have been found to influence taste preference and food intake in children [3,55,74]. Lastly, our research was conducted using only cross-sectional data enriched with retrospective information.…”

Investigating the Relationships between Basic Tastes Sensitivities, Fattiness Sensitivity, and Food Liking in 11-Year-Old Children

“…Previous research has highlighted that other factors such as familiarity showed to significantly affect children's liking as children will eat what they like, and like what they know [91,92]. Extrinsic factors such as the family's socioeconomic and cultural background have been reported to also provide a significant effect on children's food liking [93]. Moreover, in our study, taste sensitivity was measured using a water solution sample, but food liking was measured by a stated liking (without tasting) in a questionnaire.…”

Taste and Food Preferences of the Hungarian Roma Population

“…The associations of sweet taste preference with fruit consumption and of bitter taste preference with vegetable consumption and the relationship between sweet taster status and sweet preference were analyzed as well. Foods to asses taste preferences were chosen according to Hungarian dietary patterns ( 39 ) and well-known and available food items in the Roma population ( 40 ) ( Table 1 ). Factors influencing taste and food preferences and dietary patterns were registered, such as smoking ( 41 – 43 ) heavy alcohol use ( 44 ) and special diet adherence.…”