Current trends in children research

Eurosense was held this year in early September in beautiful Verona. We digged into the conference programme to get a glimpse of current research subjects on children.

Overall the conference included 7 oral presentations, 4 flash-poster or workshop oral presentations and 19 posters, totaling 30 communications with focus on children. Non-surprisingly, over half of these concerned sensory perception (17 papers), covering research on basic tastes and fat perception, sugar reduction, olfaction, and the role of genetics in sensory perception. A growing area of research concerned social interactions and the role of parents in children’s food behavior and intake (9 papers). New methods were also presented (5 papers), among other on measuring texture preferences in children or using emoji to capture children’s product experience. We note also 6 papers exploring consumption, looking into e.g. food habits, portion size and pickiness, and 3 papers dedicated to societal health challenges (overweight, malnourished children and vulnerable populations). Finally, one paper concerned sustainability through new food product development based on seaweed.

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