Children's liking and wanting of snack products: Influence of shape and flavour

Background : Children\u27s food choices are guided by their preferences. However, these preferences may change due to repeated exposure.Methods : This study investigated children\u27s (n = 242, 7&ndash;12 yrs-old) liking and wanting for snacks over 3 weeks of daily consumption. The snacks differed in size (small vs large) or flavour (sweet vs sweet-sour). Two conditions were designed: 1) a monotonous group in which children continuously consumed the same snack across the 3 weeks, and 2) a free choice group in which children were allowed to freely choose amongst 3 different flavours of the snack each day during 3 weeks.Results : Shape influenced long-term liking, i.e. small shaped snacks remained stable in liking over repeated consumption, whereas large shaped snacks with the same flavour decreased in liking. Mean wanting ratings for all snack products decreased over 3 weeks daily consumption. Flavour did not significantly influence liking and wanting over time. The ability to freely choose amongst different flavours tended to decrease children\u27s liking (p &lt; 0.1) and wanting (p &lt; 0.001) for these products. Changes in liking rather than initial liking was the best predictor of snack choice during the intervention.Conclusion : Wanting rather than liking was most affected by repeated daily consumption of snack foods over three weeks. In order to increase the likelihood that children will repeatedly eat a food product, smaller sized healthy snacks are preferred to larger sized snacks. Future research should focus on stabilizing wanting over repeated consumption.<br /

An investigation of sensory specific satiety and food size when children consume a whole or diced vegetable

Children\u27s vegetable consumption is often lower than that needed to promote optimal health and development, and practical approaches for increasing vegetable consumption are needed. Sensory Specific Satiety (SSS) reduces the liking and consumption of a consumed food over the course of an eating occasion and is an important factor in meal termination. The present study aimed to investigate the development of SSS when children ate vegetables of different sizes. The absence of SSS would be an encouraging sign to provide children more vegetables during a meal. Seventy-two children (33 boys, ages 8.8 &plusmn; 1.5 years) were recruited from Australian primary schools. Participating children consumed either whole or diced carrots for a maximum period of 10-min from a 500 g box. Cucumber was used as a control vegetable. Children\u27s liking of carrots and cucumber was measured with a 5-point child friendly hedonic scale prior to and after carrot consumption. In comparison to cucumber, liking for neither diced (p = 0.57) nor whole carrots (p = 0.18) changed during ad libitum consumption of carrots, indicating that SSS did not occur. However, children (n = 36) who finished eating carrots within the 10-min time limit, spent more time eating the whole carrots compared to the diced carrots (p &lt; 0.05), which tended to result in a higher consumption of whole carrots (p &lt; 0.06). This suggests that, in order to increase vegetable consumption, it is better to present children whole carrots than diced carrots. These findings might aid in the development of strategies to promote children\u27s greater vegetable consumption

The Effect of Sugar-Free Versus Sugar-Sweetened Beverages on Satiety, Liking and Wanting: An 18 Month Randomized Double-Blind Trial in Children

BACKGROUND: Substituting sugar-free for sugar-sweetened beverages reduces weight gain. A possible explanation is that sugar-containing and sugar-free beverages cause the same degree of satiety. However, this has not been tested in long-term trials. METHODS: We randomized 203 children aged 7-11 years to receive 250 mL per day of an artificially sweetened sugar-free beverage or a similarly looking and tasting sugar-sweetened beverage. We measured satiety on a 5-point scale by questionnaire at 0, 6, 12 and 18 months. We calculated the change in satiety from before intake to 1 minute after intake and 15 minutes after intake. We then calculated the odds ratio that satiety increased by 1 point in the sugar-group versus the sugar-free group. We also investigated how much the children liked and wanted the beverages. RESULTS: 146 children or 72% completed the study. We found no statistically significant difference in satiety between the sugar-free and sugar-sweetened group; the adjusted odds ratio for a 1 point increase in satiety in the sugar group versus the sugar-free group was 0.77 at 1 minute (95% confidence interval, 0.46 to 1.29), and 1.44 at 15 minutes after intake (95% CI, 0.86 to 2.40). The sugar-group liked and wanted their beverage slightly more than the sugar-free group, adjusted odds ratio 1.63 (95% CI 1.05 to 2.54) and 1.65 (95% CI 1.07 to 2.55), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Sugar-sweetened and sugar-free beverages produced similar satiety. Therefore when children are given sugar-free instead of sugar-containing drinks they might not make up the missing calories from other sources. This may explain our previous observation that children in the sugar-free group accumulated less body fat than those in the sugar group.<br /

Sensory and Marketing - Partners for life

Sensory and marketing groups co-exist in many medium to large food companies. The roles of sensory departments vary from an integrated group fully embedded in new product development to those who are mainly involved in quality assurance. The idea that sensory groups should just support, rather than lead new product development by providing their services to marketing and product developers is becoming a highly challenged view. During the meeting delegates including academics, market research agencies as well as company sensory scientists discussed ways to facilitate the marriage between marketing and sensory - a relationship in which both partners are equal will result in great offspring, or products in this cas

Symposium: Making a marriage work: Sensory and marketing

At the recent 10th Annual Australia and New Zealand Sensory and Consumer Science Symposium, the question was posed: can a marriage between sensory and marketing last

Infants\u27 and children\u27s salt taste perception and liking: a review

Sodium is an essential nutrient for the human body. It is widely used as sodium chloride (table salt) in (processed) foods and overconsumed by both children and adults, placing them at risk for adverse health effects such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases. The current review focusses on the development of salt taste sensitivity and preferences, and its association with food intake. Three -to- four month old infants are able to detect and prefer sodium chloride solutions over plain water, which is thought to be a biological unlearned response. Liking for water with sodium chloride mostly decreases when infants enter early childhood, but liking for sodium chloride in appropriate food contexts such as soup and snack foods remains high. The increased acceptance and preference of sodium chloride rich foods coincides with infants\u27 exposure to salty foods, and is therefore thought to be mostly a learned response. Children prefer higher salt concentrations than adults, but seem to be equally sensitive to salt taste. The addition of salt to foods increases children\u27s consumption of those foods. However, children\u27s liking for salt taste as such does not seem to correlate with children\u27s consumption of salty foods. Decreasing the exposure to salty tasting foods during early infancy is recommended. Salt plays an important role in children\u27s liking for a variety of foods. It is, however, questionable if children\u27s liking for salt per se influences the intake of salty foods

Sensory and consumer research update : Umami to better balance emotional satisfaction from food

Monosodium glutamate, also known as sodium glutamate or MSG, is the sodium salt of glutamic-acid or glutamate, the most abundant naturally occurring non-essential amino-acids and can be found in many protein-rich food products such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products and other plant sources. Glutamic-acid was discovered and isolated from wheat gluten and identified in the year 1866, by the German chemist Karl Heinrich Leopold Ritthausen

Sensory and consumer research update : Sweet taste and diet

There is much attention on sugar in the food supply given the recent sugar tax in Britain. Sugar remains a controversial, yet much loved ingredient. A new comprehensive study from Deakin University Centre for Advanced Sensory Science (CASS) looked at the relationship between sweet taste function, diet and anthropometry among 60 adults. Low et al used six different sweeteners (glucose, fructose, sucrose, sucralose, erythritol, and Rebaudioside A) and measured detection, recognition threshold and perceived intensity of all the sweeteners in all subjects. They assessed diet in all subjects as well as height, weight and waist circumference

Sensory and consumer research update : Consumption of garlic positively affects body odour

Garlic is an integral part of European and Asian cuisines. It is appreciated for its flavour, and the consumption of garlic is associated with a wide range of health benefits throughout history. For instance, records from Ancient Egypt suggest that pyramid builders were fed garlic to acquire extra power. In the Roman Empire, garlic was used to treat gastrointestinal disorders, asthma, madness, tumours and worms