How do children want their food to be served?

Nutrition education is a spearhead of public health policies. From an early age, it is important to give maximum opportunities for our children to flourish in a healthy diet.

Food education (learning to taste, the ability to cook, etc.) and aspects of physical activity are factors of well-being and health.

However, there is still a lot of essential information to know to improve and better understand the approach of children to their diet.

It seems that meal service styles are important for children's acceptance, but few studies have examined how children prefer to have their meals served.

A study published on August 15, 2018 in the journal Journal of Sensory Studies investigated children's preferred eating styles for typical meals in younger and older children.

The results have many interests, whether for all parents or food education professionals.

HOW TO SERVE YOUR CHILD'S MEAL?

Bringing children to eat their food is a challenge for many parents and further research may be useful.

It turns out that children have different preferences as to how food should be placed on the plate to make them want to eat, depending on gender and age.

The aim of Future Consumer Lab's research (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) was to investigate whether children prefer their food served in a particular way and whether their gender and age make a difference to their preferences.

If one pays attention to parents' comments, some say that their children prefer that their food be served in a particular way, including in a specific order.

However, there is little factual knowledge about how children sort and eat their food, which is very relevant when, for example, we want our children to eat more vegetables or eat their food in general.

In addition to being a help for parents, research can be used to optimize meal programs in school canteens and meals given to students by external providers.

A GREAT GAIN WITH LITTLE EFFORTS

The authors indicate that you can get children to eat more fruits and vegetables simply by presenting them in small portions and making them freely available - so that you can easily grab and eat them.

We also know that visual presentation affects the way children eat. At the same time, it would be good to know if there are big gains to be made simply by disposing of the food in a certain way.

The researchers asked 100 schoolchildren aged 7 to 8 and 12 to 14 to make a priority list of photos of six different dishes served in three different ways: with food items presented separately (not touching each other) ); a mixture of ingredients and separate ingredients; with all the food mixed together.

From the priority given by the children to the photos displayed, the researchers were able to see which presentation of the food they preferred and which style of service they preferred.

The study shows that younger girls (aged 7 to 8) prefer the separate style of service, while boys of the same age have no preference for the way in which food is organized.

Research also shows that children ages 12 to 14 prefer that foods be: mixed together or mixed with separate and mixed ingredients.

A separate service style is the best solution

However, the research does not say why girls prefer their food to be served separately. One suggestion might be that they believe the different ingredients could become contaminated. But it is also possible that they prefer to eat the different elements in a certain order or that the clear delimitation is only a better overview.

To conclude, based on their study, researchers advise serving separate foods on the plate, at least for younger age groups.

The child can mix the food when the different elements of the food are separated on the plate or the plate, whereas the opposite is not possible.

SOURCES

"Serving style preferences for various meal arrangements among children. Journal of Sensory Studies, 2018; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/joss.12445; e12445 DOI: 10.1111 / joss.12445

"New research shows how to eat their food served", https://food.ku.dk/english/news/2018/new-research-shows-how-children-want-their-food-served/