Food preference for milk and dairy products

Zuzana Derflerová Brázdová,Lenka Vorlová,Helena Klimusová,Jindřich Fiala

doi:10.2754/avb201483s10s41

Zuzana Derflerová Brázdová, Lenka Vorlová + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.2754/avb201483s10s41

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Abstract

Milk and dairy products constitute an important source of energy and nutrients for humans. Food preferences may significantly influence the actual consumption (and thus nutrition) of people at the population level. The objective of the present large-scale survey was to specify current preferences for milk and dairy products with regard to age and sex. The study was conducted across the Moravia region, Czech Republic, on a sample of 451 individuals divided into 4 age groups: children, adolescents, young adults, and elderly people. A graphic scale questionnaire was administered, with respondents rating their degree of preference for each food item by drawing a mark on a 35 mm line. Out of the 115 items in the questionnaire, 11 items represented dairy products. Data was analysed by means of a general linear model using IBM SPSS Statistics software. Preference for milk was lower in the elderly group than the other groups (P < 0.01). In children, the most preferred dairy product was cream, which was in contrast with the elderly group. Significant sex differences were only found with low-fat yoghurt (P < 0.01). The overall preference for dairy products (21.6) was lower than the average preference for all foods on the list (22.5). The cross-sectional study revealed intergenerational differences in preferences for specific dairy products, which were most marked in case of cream, processed cheese, blue cheese, and buttermilk. The knowledge of these differences might help promote more focused action at the community level directed at increasing the overall consumption of dairy products in the population.

Highlights

Food liking or food preferences in humans are formed on the basis of interaction between innate traits, e.g. preference for sweet taste in mammals (Breen et al 2006) and cognitively acquired attitudes to various kinds of food, i.e. repeated experience (Harris 2008)
When the list of 115 foods was divided into 11 categories, the group incorporating dairy products ranked among moderately preferred categories (Fig. 1)
The intergenerational differences in preference for milk, cream, butter, hard cheese, flavoured curd cheese, etc., can be to a large degree attributed to the natural physiological changes occurring in the human organism throughout the lifespan (Ton Nu et al 1996; Nicklaus et al 2004; Cooke and Wardle 2005)

Summary

Introduction

Food liking or food preferences in humans are formed on the basis of interaction between innate traits, e.g. preference for sweet taste in mammals (Breen et al 2006) and cognitively acquired attitudes to various kinds of food, i.e. repeated experience (Harris 2008). Breast milk is the only food which is truly ‘natural’ to the human individual up to the sixth month of age. All other foods in the human diet are a result of artificial selection. The fact that milk of other mammalian species (cow milk, etc.) in our culture represents a certain follow-up of breast milk consumption makes – especially in childhood – intake of milk easier in comparison with intake of foods with other organoleptic properties (Ramos and Stein 2000; Janstova et al 2011). Higher prevalence of lactose intolerance might contribute to the development of milk aversion. In Europe, the prevalence of lactose intolerance (which does not exceed 25%) is lower than in any other continent (Bhatnagar and Aggarwall 2007)

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