Education Commons^™

The Tasting Party Assessment: Can Educators Reliably Evaluate Preschoolers’ Willingness To Try New Foods In Group Settings?, Laura L. Bellows, Savannah Hobbs, Susan L. Johnson

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Food neophobia, defined as an unwillingness to consume novel and unfamiliar foods is common in young children. Assessment of neophobia or willingness to try new foods can be a challenge with this audience. With the increase in nutrition interventions focused on the young child, valid and reliable measures to assess willingness to try new foods that can be administered in groups by classroom teachers and Extension educators are needed. The Food Friends: Fun with New Foods (FWNF) program aims to increase children’s willingness to try new foods in childcare settings. The Tasting Party assessment was developed as the primary tool …