Food and sensory experiences: Issues to consider when developing an educational programme on explorative feeding practices

It is well known that individual food preferences are strictly dependent on social, cultural, and cognitive factors. More recently it has been shown the relevance of the genetic component in determining people taste as well (Bufe et al, 2005). According to Rozin and Fallon (1980), who proposed a cognitive explanation of food preferences, the taxonomy of alimentary preferences is based, on one hand, on sensory and ideational factors and, on the other hand, on the anticipation of consequences. Authors claim that distaste depends on sensory factors while disgust depends on sensory-ideational ones. In children, it is quite frequent to observe alimentary phobias (Birch, Zimmerman & Hind, 1980; Pliner & Loewen, 1997). In the present work, we address a number of issues that must be taken in to account to promote a conscious alimentation behaviour in children