Apples Don’t Fall Far? Parent-Child Dyad Evaluations of Packaged Fruits and Vegetables

• In Event: 1-204 - Reading Labels and Setting Tables: Examining Children’s Eating and Food-Related Parenting from an Ecological Perspective

Integrative Statement

Characteristics of packaged foods may influence how individuals think foods might taste (Ares & Deliza, 2010; Simmonds, Woods, & Spence, 2018), how healthy foods are (Carrillo, Varela, & Fiszman, 2012), and consumption (Werle, Balbo, Caldara, & Corneille, 2016). Previous research suggests further exploration of how packaging influences consumer perceptions of packaged foods is needed (Krishna et al., 2017; Werle et al., 2016), and children need to be included because they are highly influenced by features of packaging (Elliot, 2011, 2012). This study aimed to examine the impact of packaging on parent-child dyads’ health and taste perceptions of packaged fruits and vegetables. Furthermore, this study explored how parents’ and children’s food evaluations are similar, and what factors (e.g., food neophobia, parental feeding practices) are associated with discrepancies in evaluations. It was hypothesized that features of packaged foods (e.g., health labeling, fun packaging, plain packaging) and the health of the food (e.g., minimally processed, reduced nutritional value) would influence children’s and parents’ taste and health perceptions.

Thirty 6- to 8-year old children (pilot n = 10; Mage = 7.04, SD = 0.80) and their parents were recruited from preschools and daycares located in northwest Ohio. Children participated in a food rating task in which they rated 64 pictures of packaged fruits and vegetables on health, taste, and willingness to try. Eight fruits/vegetables (apple, banana, mango, strawberries, carrot, kale, snap peas, sweet potato) varied on health (minimally processed, reduced nutritional value) and packaging (healthy, fun, plain, unpackaged; see Figure 1 for examples). Parents participated in the same task online.

Preliminary results are based on child-only pilot data. Three paired sample t-tests found that children thought minimally processed foods were healthier [t(9) = 5.54, p < .001], tastier [t(9) = 6.53, p < .001], and children were more willing to try them [t(9) = 5.27, p < .001] compared to reduced nutritional value foods (see Table 1 for means). A repeated measures ANOVA revealed a trending effect for package type on children’s health ratings, F(3, 27) = 2.80, p = .14. Children rated healthy packaging (M = 4.14, SD = 0.41) as being significantly healthier than plain packaging (M = 3.88, SD = 0.38) and unpackaged foods (M = 3.83, SD = 0.49). However, there was no effect of package type on children’s taste ratings, F(3, 27) = 2.28, p = .14, or their willingness to try foods, F(3, 27) = 1.03, p = .40.

Preliminary results show that children think fruits/vegetables that are minimally processed (e.g., prepared for convenience but unaltered nutritional value) are healthier and tastier than those that are reduced in nutritional value (e.g., added salt, fat, or sugar). Further, children tend to believe that packaging with health claims contains healthier food. Package type did not influence taste ratings. This suggests that fresh fruits/vegetables are more appealing to children than previously thought and packaging does not strongly influence children’s taste perceptions

Authors

• Lauren A. Dial, Bowling Green State University
  Presenting Author

• Dara Musher-Eizenman, Bowling Green State University
  Non-Presenting Author