Children’s dietary recalls: the salience of entree and liking for foods on accuracy and order of reporting

This study investigated the impact of entree and liking for foods on the accuracy and order of reporting on children’s school lunch recalls. Data were collected during a series of studies to investigate children’s lunch recalls from a cognitive processing approach to understand better how children remember what they have eaten. Fourth-grade children from four schools were randomly selected, observed eating lunch, and interviewed the same (n = 89) or next (n = 148) day. Foods were classified as matches (observed and reported eaten), omissions (observed but not reported eaten), or phantoms (not observed but reported eaten), and corresponding rates were calculated. Statistical analyses included z tests and permutation tests. For same- and next-day recalls, children were more likely to report entree than other meal components earlier in the interview. For next-day recalls, the phantom rate for the remaining items was lower for children who reported entrees accurately versus inaccurately. For items liked “a lot” compared with items “not liked a lot,” match rates were higher for next-day recalls, and phantom rates were lower for both same- and next-day recalls. Because entree and liking for foods appear to play salient roles in children’s dietary recalls, these results provide guidance regarding the development of specific prompts to increase the accuracy of children’s dietary recalls.