Abstract
ObjectiveThis pilot study examined whether informing children of the presence of vegetables in select snack food items alters taste preference. MethodsA random sample of 68 elementary and middle school children tasted identical pairs of 3 snack food items containing vegetables. In each pair, 1 sample's label included the food's vegetable (eg, broccoli gingerbread spice cake), and 1 sample's label did not (eg, gingerbread spice cake). Participants reported whether the samples tasted the same, or whether they preferred one sample. Frequency of vegetable consumption was also assessed. ResultsTaste preferences did not differ for the labeled versus the unlabeled sample of zucchini chocolate chip bread, χ2 (2, n = 68) = 3.21, P = .20 or broccoli gingerbread spice cake χ2 (2, n = 68) = 2.15, P = .34. However, students preferred the unlabeled cookies (ie, chocolate chip cookies) over the vegetable-labeled version (ie, chickpea chocolate chip cookies), χ2 = (2, n = 68) 9.21, P = .01. Chickpeas were consumed less frequently (81% had not tried in past year) as compared to zucchini and broccoli. Conclusions and ImplicationsInforming children of the presence of vegetables hidden within snack food may or may not alter taste preference and may depend on the frequency of prior exposure to the vegetable.
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