Understanding barriers of eating unfamiliar fruits and vegetables in children using ‘Sensory Play’: a narrative review

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SummaryThis narrative review focuses on the effects of ‘Sensory Play’ on young children's willingness to try new nutritious foods, particularly fruits and vegetables. Young children are often fussy when it comes to trying new nutritious foods. ‘Sensory Play’ is a type of early childhood sensory education that stimulates one, or more, of the five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight and sound. This review examines the literature on sensory‐based education and its effects on children's willingness to taste fruits and vegetables. Previous research has explored the use of ‘Sensory Play’ to introduce fruits and vegetables to young children, with promising results in increasing intake. However, there is a gap in research on the potential use of non‐taste exposure activities (i.e. activities that use the sense of touch, smell, sight and sound, but not taste) to increase children's willingness to try unfamiliar fruits and vegetables. The outcomes of this review explored the potential of how these sensory‐based educational tools can be used to decrease barriers of fruits and vegetables acceptance.