Measuring food liking in children: a comparison of non verbal methods

Sensory methods to assess food preference in children have been investigated. Three non verbal methods were used: paired comparison, ranking by elimination and hedonic categorization. In order to assess the reliability of the different methods, three criteria were used: discrimination of products, repeatability of the responses given by children and validity of the methods. One hundred and sixty-nine children aged from 4 to 10 participated in six sessions (three methods tested twice) where they had to evaluate five biscuits dressed with different jams (apricot, banana, lemon, raspberry and strawberry). The products were slightly more discriminated with hedonic categorization than with comparative methods. For the three methods, familiar biscuits are preferred to new products and the color could have also influenced choices made by children. Children aged from 4 to 5 years did not give repeatable results. Children older than 5 made reliable food choices with all three methods. The results are slightly more repeatable with hedonic categorization than with comparative methods. At the end of the experiment, children had to choose a reward among five packets of the biscuits previously tested. The choice of the reward was more consistent with the results of paired comparison and ranking-by elimination, than with the results of hedonic categorization. It is argued that this is due to differences in the use of visual information under the different methods. The color of the products influences the food choices of children more strongly in comparative than in monadic presentation.