title: Effectiveness of Taste Lessons with and without additional experiential learning activities on children's willingness to taste vegetables.
abstract: This study assessed the effectiveness of the Dutch school programme Taste Lessons with and without additional experiential learning activities on children's willingness to taste unfamiliar vegetables. Thirty-three primary schools (877 children in grades 6-7 with a mean age of 10.3 years) participated in Taste Lessons Vegetable Menu (TLVM, lessons and extra activities), Taste Lessons (TL, lessons), or a control group. A baseline and follow-up measurement was used to assess for each child: number of four familiar and four unfamiliar vegetables tasted, quantity tasted, choice of vegetable of which to eat more, and number of vegetables willing to taste again later. Furthermore, children filled out a questionnaire on daily vegetable intake and food neophobia. Multilevel and Cox regression analyses were conducted to compare changes in the outcome measures between the three study groups. No significant intervention effects were found on willingness to taste unfamiliar vegetables. Neither were effects found on familiar vegetables, except for number of familiar vegetables tasted (p < 0.05). Furthermore, no significant intervention effects were found on daily vegetable consumption and food neophobia. These results indicate that more intensive school-based nutrition education activities are needed to increase children's willingness to taste unfamiliar vegetables and increase their vegetable intake.
authors.affiliation: Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: marieke_fries@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Marieke C E
authors.initials: MCE
authors.lastname: Battjes-Fries
authors.affiliation: Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: annemien.haveman@wur.nl.
authors.forename: Annemien
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haveman-Nies
authors.affiliation: Wageningen UR Food & Biobased Research, Consumer Science & Health, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: gertrude.zeinstra@wur.nl.
authors.forename: Gertrude G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Zeinstra
authors.affiliation: Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: ellen.vandongen@wur.nl.
authors.forename: Ellen J I
authors.initials: EJI
authors.lastname: van Dongen
authors.affiliation: Steunpunt Smaaklessen & EU-Schoolfruit, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: hantemeester@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Hante J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Meester
authors.affiliation: Steunpunt Smaaklessen & EU-Schoolfruit, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: rinelle.vandentop@wur.nl.
authors.forename: Rinelle
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: van den Top-Pullen
authors.affiliation: Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: pieter.vantveer@wur.nl.
authors.forename: Pieter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Van't Veer
authors.affiliation: Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8129, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: kees.degraaf@wur.nl.
authors.forename: Kees
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: de Graaf
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D004435:Eating / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000379:methods*; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D055697:Taste Perception; D014675:Vegetables
keywords: Effect evaluation; Experiential learning; Food neophobia; Nutrition education; Vegetable consumption; Willingness to taste