Changes of Food Preference in Children Aged 4 and 5 Years

Food preference and food intake behaviors were investigated on 40 children for 21 kinds of foods using foodcards. Bell pepper, leek, radish and shiitake mushroom were the most unpopular foods to children. These are foods with unique smell, sliminess, and stickiness. Children seem to dislike such kinds of foods. Food preference and food intake behaviors in children have changed from the age of 4 to 5 years. For example, foods that over 60% or more of children answered to come to dislike more in five-year-olds than in four-year-olds were shiitake mushroom, natto, eggplant and radish. Regarding rank difference correlation in five ranks of food preference and three ranks of food intake behaviors in children, correlation was statistically significant in all 21 kinds of foods with 1% significance. Children ate their favorite foods very much and didn't eat non-favorite foods. "Food preference" and "food intake behaviors" between four-year-old and five-year-old children, and between five-year-old children and their mothers seemed different