If you feel like your six-year-old has suddenly become more picky about the texture of his dinner, don’t worry. He’ll get over it. A new study from the Department of Food Science at the University of Copenhagen shows that by the age of six, children prefer to avoid the crunch of peanut butter, berries in jam and pieces of fruit in yogurt.
In the study, researchers asked 485 children between the ages of five and twelve to choose between six different foods with and without lumps, seeds, and pieces of fruit. The foods were bread, orange juice, peanut butter, strawberry jam, yogurt, and tomato soup. The researchers showed the children pictures of these foods with and without lumps and then asked them to choose between them.
In 76 percent of cases, six-year-olds opted for lump-free foods, the highest preference rate observed among age groups.
“The fact that children in general are not comfortable with too many lumps in their food is something that many people can probably relate to, but this is the first time that a scientific study has linked a specific age group, namely six-year-olds, so clearly with this food preference,” said Dr Ching Yue Chow, first author of the study.
To get the most accurate answers possible, the researchers used real foods to check the consistency of children’s answers to these questions in other studies.
Protection against dangerous foods
According to Ching Yue Chow, there may be an explanation for why children’s fear of complex food textures peaks around age six.
“Food neophobia is often described as a reluctance to eat new or unfamiliar foods. It is thought to be a protective function to prevent children from eating potentially poisonous foods or other dangerous things as they begin to become more independent. Studies have shown that food neophobia starts from a low level at the time of weaning. It increases sharply as the child becomes more mobile and independent, and reaches a peak at around age 6 or 7.
“So it makes sense that this particular group in our study doesn’t like too many lumps in their food, as it’s at this age that they are more cautious when it comes to food,” explains Ching Yue Chow.
The researchers also looked at whether the size of the food pieces had anything to do with it, but they didn’t find a clear answer.
“Children generally seemed to have no problem distinguishing between different sizes of pieces when they had food in their mouths. For them, what was important was the presence or absence of pieces,” Ching Yue Chow said.
However, although the desire for chopped foods reaches its lowest point at age six, it gradually changes between ages seven and twelve, the study shows. And this is reinforced by our prior knowledge of how children’s food preferences mature with age.
“As children reach school age, they may be more influenced by their classmates and others around them to try new types of foods and be more eager to broaden their horizons. We can also see that the proportion of people who want to eat chunky foods increases in line with their age in the study,” says Ching Yue Chow.
New dishes may need to be introduced 8 to 15 times.
According to the researcher, the “anti-chunk phase” that 6-year-olds have is something that parents need to accept, although it can be frustrating when children don’t want to eat the food they are served. But that can easily change once they pass the critical age of six. Just keep trying, often up to 15 times, the recommendation says:
“A lot of research on children and food shows that repeated exposure to new dishes has a positive effect on children’s decision to try them. Specifically, it’s about giving children the opportunity to try new foods while there’s something on the plate that they already know. It often takes 8-15 times of introducing the new dish to them before they develop a preference for it, but persistence pays off,” explains Ching Yue Chow.
Additionally, it is a good idea to avoid compulsions and rewards for children to eat vegetables.
“Rewarding a child with ice cream if he eats broccoli is a very short-term strategy, because once you take away the ice cream, he no longer wants to eat healthy foods. At the same time, you should not pressure the child or try to force him to eat certain things, because you run the risk of him eating the new food even less than before because he associates it with something negative,” says Ching Yue Chow.
The new research findings shed more light on the food preferences of children aged between five and twelve, which the researcher hopes could make parents and the food industry wiser about our relationship with food.
“It is important to understand the underlying psychology of children when one, as a parent, serves them food and when, as a company, develops new products to prevent children from becoming unnecessarily picky. In this regard, I hope our study can serve as an inspiration to parents and those developing new food products,” concludes Ching Yue Chow.
Six-year-olds are the ones who like lumps in their food the least:
About the study:
- The research was carried out in close collaboration between Future Consumer Lab, the Department of Food Science at the University of Copenhagen and the CASS Food Research Centre at Deakin University (Australia).
- The researchers behind the study are: Ching Yue Chow, Anne C. Bech, Annemarie Olsen, Russell Keast, Catherine G. Russell and Wender LP Bredie.
- The study involved 485 Australian children aged between 5 and 12 years.
- The study is funded by the Danish Innovation Fund and Arla Foods.