Sensory evaluation of a novel vegetable in school age children

A behavioural sensory task was undertaken to further understanding into whether children's sensory evaluation of a new vegetable is associated with tasting and food neophobia scores. A sample of ninety-five children, aged 7–11 years, was recruited from a primary school in inner city Birmingham, UK. They were asked to rate the sight, smell and feel of a familiar vegetable (carrot) and an unfamiliar vegetable (celeriac) in a randomised order to control for order effects. They were then asked to try the each vegetable, and rate its taste. It was found that children rated the sensory characteristics of the familiar vegetable more positively than the novel vegetable across all sensory domains (p < 0.05). Refusing to try the novel vegetable was associated with food neophobia scores and olfactory ratings. The ratings of the taste of the novel vegetable were associated with olfactory and tactile ratings. In addition there was a clear developmental shift in the sample with younger children being more likely to rate the novel vegetable as ‘looking strange’ and older children rating the novel vegetable as ‘smelling strange’. This research strengthens the idea that sensory information is important in children deciding to try, and their hedonic evaluation of the taste of a new vegetable.