Preferences, dislikes and attributes leading to liking and disliking
Table 3 summarizes children's spontaneously mentioned preferences and dislikes. The results show that children's preferences and dislikes expand as they grow up. Group A spontaneously mentioned soft, high-energy foods, such as pancakes and French fries, and sweet fruits as their most preferred food. Group B mentioned composite dishes and meat, besides soft, high-energy foods and fruits. Composite dishes are food dishes with various ingredients, such as pizza or vegetable pie. Spontaneously mentioned favourite foods of many children in group C were composite dishes with vegetables as the principle component. The other preferred foods were comparable to groups A and B.
When asked about the food they disliked most, almost all children spontaneously mentioned a vegetable. Group A referred to bitter vegetables, such as Brussels sprouts, spinach and chicory. In group B, children indicated also vegetables with a more bland taste, French beans for example. Children in group C mentioned bitter, sour and bland tasting vegetables as their least favourite foods.
In Table 3, also the reasons for liking and disliking provided by the three age groups are summarized. The most important attributes for liking in group A were based on texture, taste and preference ("I just like it"). Additional reasons for liking in group B were based on more specific tastes: sweetness and sourness. Preference based reasons were mentioned less often than in group A. Familiarity of the taste and liking everything about the product were new reasons compared to group A. The most important reason for liking in group C was a good taste, followed by texture and preference for topping (For example: the sauce on cauliflower). Some children said they liked saltiness or bitterness. These attributes did not come out in groups A and B.
Important reasons for disliking in group A were based on texture, taste and appearance. Reasons for disliking in group B were derived from taste in general, followed by sourness and texture. Disliking in group C was founded on specific tastes such as sourness and bitterness and negative (expected) experiences (For example: "It makes me feel sick" or "It feels like spittle").
Perception of fruit and vegetables
When the children were asked to make groups of different fruit and vegetable products, the youngest children made groups based on concrete characteristics: colour and shape. For example the lemon and grapefruit were put together, because they are both yellow. A few children in group B based their categorization on concrete characteristics as well. The others used abstract characteristics: a liking dimension or the dimension fruit versus vegetables. All children in group C used abstract characteristics to categorize the products: "liking" or "fruit versus vegetables" or "a mixed dimension", which included frequency of use combined with liking or with fruit versus vegetables.
When the children were asked to explain whether fruits or vegetables were appropriate for adults and/or for children, different perspectives were found. Groups B and C considered fruit to be appropriate for adults as well as for children. Children in group A, however, made a distinction between tasty and non-tasty products. They mentioned that tasty fruits or vegetables were for both children and adults. Non-tasty products were considered appropriate only for adults. Groups A and B mentioned their own preference and physical growth ("helps you grow") as arguments for making the distinction between adult and child food. Healthfulness ("It is healthy") and social norm arguments ("Everybody eats it") emerged in groups B and C.
Knowledge of tastes
The older the children were, the more comprehensive was their understanding of the basic tastes. Children in group A used salty in the correct way. They did not know what bitter was. Although the children had some understanding of the tastes sour and sweet, they had difficulties in labelling the products with these terms. Many children in groups A and B labelled a lemon as sweet. In group B, sourness was used in the correct way, and a few children were familiar with the term bitter. It was not until group C that the children used salt, sour, sweet and bitter in the correct way.
Associations and images
To find out whether the image of fruit and vegetables is a barrier to consumption, children were asked whether fruit and vegetable products were cool or boring. These terms were difficult for group A. Groups B and C stated that these terms were not really appropriate terms: fruit and vegetables are neither cool nor boring.
It was surprising to see that the younger the child, the more enthusiastic and happy the child was when it saw a highly liked product, such as strawberries for most children. Free associations for fruit and vegetables were quite difficult for the children. With increasing age, children made more abstract and functional associations.
Appropriate times and occasions
Children's ideas about appropriate eating situations for fruit and vegetables are shown in Table 4. All groups considered lunch and the afternoon as appropriate times for eating fruit. Strawberries were the only type of fruit thought to go well with breakfast. Group B mentioned that fruit as a dessert after dinner was possible. Only group C considered the evening as a possible time for eating fruit. When asked about an appropriate time for vegetables, children of all ages agreed that dinner was the right time.
All age groups associated the home environment with eating fruit. Only group A associated eating fruit with school and a party. In group B, half of the children agreed that sport and being with friends were appropriate occasions for fruit, besides home. This was similar to group C, but at this age half of the children also saw the computer/TV as a good occasion for eating fruit. Group C stated that fruit and vegetables were too healthy for a party. A party was associated with eating candy and other "unhealthy stuff".
The three age groups used different arguments when deciding on appropriate times or occasions. Group A relied on their own behaviour or on the features of the picture cards. Group B referred to their own behaviour, parental and school rules or the opportunity for eating. A few children used the features of the picture cards in their argumentation for appropriate times. In group C, social norms emerged in reasoning about appropriate times. The children took into account what they had seen their peers doing or not and they were aware of a general norm ("It is not common to do this"). In addition, they used arguments relating to their own behaviour, the availability of food, the (time) opportunity for eating and the functions of fruit (energy for example).
In summary, children of all ages had fixed ideas about appropriate times and occasions for eating fruit and vegetables. With increasing age, the children saw more opportunities for eating fruit. In addition, older children used a broader range of arguments and their arguments were more abstract.
Parent and child healthy eating strategies
The conversations made clear that almost all parents try to influence the eating behaviour of their child. The children were very well aware of the rules and strategies their parents apply in relation to eating. To promote healthy eating, parents in all age groups used "moderation" and "health" arguments. Moderation refers to children's statements where they indicated that the intake of some foods was restricted to certain times of the day or week. However, there were also differences found between the three age groups (See Table 4). In group A, instrumental eating was used more often than in the other age groups. Instrumental eating means that the children are promised a reward if they eat well [36]. Another often-used strategy was permission to use apple sauce in combination with disliked vegetables, which is a form of taste masking. This tactic was applied quite often in group B too. Children in this age group said that they invented their own ways of dealing with disliked products: they made vegetables very flat and added a lot of apple sauce or they ate ten very small bites, so they actually ate five normal bites. In group C, adding apple sauce was a less used strategy. In this age category, parents mentioned the effort they had put into cooking the vegetables as an argument to get the children to eat them. All children in group C had invented their own creative strategy to cope with eating disliked vegetables, such as squeezing their nose, finishing first the non-tasty food or adding ketchup to the vegetables.
Concept of health
A clear trend was seen for the concept of health. Young children could not describe health. The older the children, the more comprehensive and abstract the concept. Most of the 4–5-year-olds could not categorize products correctly into healthy or not healthy. They used concrete and simple "rules" to categorize products as healthy or not. The most popular justification rule was a food-colour link, such as "It's healthy, because it's green". This fits for the leek, but not for a green candy. Second and third most popular arguments were food-health links (food related to healthy food group such as "It is fruit and fruit is healthy") and preference links ("It's healthy, because I like it"). The other two age groups could correctly categorize products into healthy or not. In groups B and C, food-health and food-nutrient links (food classification linked to its provision of a specific nutrient such as "It is healthy, because it contains vitamin C") were most popular justification categories. Social influence ("family says" or "others say") and general knowledge ("I just know") were the third and fourth most often mentioned.
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