Prepared Foods - September 2008 - (Page 27)

new product trends © ISTOCKPHOTO/ BONNIE JACOBS Why Children Choose the Foods They Do Many factors affect children’s food choices, from biological and psychological factors to sensory and social factors. When using children in sensory and consumer-based tests, it is important to understand their limitations when designing the experiments, selecting the methods of research and analyzing data. Research conducted at Campden Chantal Gilbert and Tim Hutton, Campden & Chorleywood Food Research Association C hildren are a major market for the food industry and are also the forerunners of a potentially loyal adult market. However, their food preferences are very different to those of adults, and therefore, when developing new products for children, it is very important to ﬁnd out what type of food they will be attracted to. It is also important to appreciate that individual preferences will change over a relatively short time frame (i.e., young children’s likes and dislikes will differ from those of teenagers) and that methods used to investigate these differences may also vary. At the same time, there are speciﬁc marketing and legislative constraints to consider, such as the pressure to create and advertise products that are seen as more in tune with a healthy lifestyle. Many factors have been identiﬁed that affect children’s food choices. As well as biological and psychological factors, choice is affected by sensory characteristics, such as taste, appearance texture and preferences, and nonsensory factors, such as hunger, familiarity, family habits and feeding practices, peer pressure, schools and teachers, media and advertising, and product cost and availability. Children’s diets have been shown to include a lot of highfat, energy-dense foods. The liking of these particular food products has been attributed to children’s constant need & Chorleywood Food Research for energy and the fact that, Association (CCFRA) indicates in many cases, higher fat foods are perceived to taste that improving children’s better. The over-consumption knowledge about food does of these types of foods, coupled with decreasing not necessarily mean they will levels of physical activity, adopt a healthy lifestyle. has contributed to a rapidly growing obesity problem in much of the Western world. It is believed that obesity at an early age can persist into adulthood, which can subsequently increase the risk of obesity-related conditions later in life. It is also suggested that metabolic syndrome effects, cardiovascular disease and other conditions associated with being overweight and obese are more likely to be fatal when the person has been overweight or obese since childhood. Although efforts have been made to try to improve children’s dietary habits and make them aware of the beneﬁts of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, most of these have not been very effective. In most cases, although the children involved showed improved nutritional awareness, improvements in eating habits were short-lived. Intervention actions, in which lectures were combined with exposure to selected food products, have been found to be more effective in improving children’s eating habits. www.PreparedFoods.com ● September 2008 27 http://www.PreparedFoods.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Prepared Foods - September 2008

Prepared Foods - September 2008 Contents Hitting the Shelves Talk Soup Why Kids Choose the Foods They Do MarketWatch Regulations Oaxaca: Land of the Seven Moles Flavor Secrets: A Touch of Garlic On the National Menu Emerging Healthy Ingredients: Staples to Stars Formulating for Texture and Viscosity R&D Applications Seminar: Tropical Fruits and Flavor Considerations R&D Applications: The Fifth Taste R&D Applications: Fiber Byproduct Adds Value Abstracts IFT Profile Fast-tracking with Fiber-ful Grains R&D Applications: Domestic New Superfruit NutraNews

Prepared Foods - September 2008

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