Taste education reduces food neophobia and increases willingness to try novel foods in school children

Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVESThis study measured the effects of a taste education program developed in Korea on food neophobia and willingness to try novel foods in school children.SUBJECTS/METHODSOne-hundred and twenty school children (aged 7-9 years) residing in Seoul participated in 12 sessions of a taste education program for 3 months. The Korean taste education program was adapted from "Les classes du goût" by J. Puisais and modified to suit a Korean education environment. The study subjected school children to pre- and post-programs on food neophobia and willingness to try novel foods (WTNF), in addition to children's food neophobia in their parents. A total of 101 survey data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0.RESULTSRegarding the effects of taste education, scores of food neophobia significantly decreased (P < 0.01) in the posttest, mean (m) score (4.10 ± 1.19) decreased compared to the pretest (4.39 ± 1.00), and WTNF significantly increased (P < 0.001) in the pretest (m) score (0.48 ± 0.33) compared to the pretest (0.32 ± 0.34). This result indicates verification of the study hypothesis.CONCLUSIONSFood neophobia scale (FNS), an index that measures personal food preference [12], showed a very weak correlation with behavioral willingness to taste novel foods (WTNF). Therefore, it is expected that the two scales measure different things. However, considering that the traits of food neophobia are not easily changed, the taste education program was administered in a remarkably effective manner.

Liking and consumption of vegetables with more appealing and less appealing sensory properties: Associations with attitudes, food neophobia and food choice motivations in European adolescents

“…Lower food neophobia has been found to be associated with a higher exposure to different 351 15 cuisines and cultural diversity (Flight et al, 2003;Mustonen et al, 2012), and there is some evidence that 352 educational interventions can reduce food neophobia to some degree (e.g. Park & Cho, 2016). The 353 associations between vegetable types also suggest that adolescents who like vegetables with both more 354 and less appealing sensory properties typically like a range of vegetable tastes, and again may suggest a 355 liking for vegetables in general and a clustering of healthy eating preferences.…”

Education of the postprandial experience by a sensory‐cognitive intervention

“…The potential to influence the individuals′ responsiveness to meal ingestion may have practical relevance in promoting a healthy eating behavior, as well as in clinical conditions involving impaired, excessive or painful eating, eg, nutritional deficit, overweight or functional dyspepsia, respectively. Sensory‐based food education programs have shown to increase willingness to try vegetables, berries and the preference for novel foods in children . Based on these data we hypothesized that education increases the hedonic responses to a meal, and our aim was to determine the differential effects of education on the homeostatic and hedonic postprandial experience.…”

“…Sensory-based food education programs have shown to increase willingness to try vegetables, berries and the preference for novel foods in children. 13,14 Based on these data we hypothesized that education increases the hedonic responses to a meal, and our aim was to determine the differential effects of education on the homeostatic and hedonic postprandial experience. To this aim, we designed a pilot, proof-of-concept study to compare in a parallel design the effect of real vs sham education on the responses to a probe meal.…”

Why for feed and not for human consumption? The black soldier fly larvae

“…Taste exposure and innovative product development can assist in changing the preconceived ideas consumers have toward the appropriateness, and sensory properties of BSFL (Tan et al, 2016). Physically having access to and tasting insect products can be a powerful tool to reduce food neophobia, as well as create familiarity regarding the tastes and textures associated with eating insect-based foods (Caparros Megido et al, 2016;Pambo et al, 2018;Park & Cho, 2016;Sogari, Bogueva, & Marinova, 2019). Using a combination of positive information and tasting BSFL-based products can be used as a strong strategy to encourage the consumption of BSFL among consumers.…”