News and Blog

Helping children eat healthy

Edulia’s main objective has been “bringing down barriers to healthy eating”. The idea is that we want children…

A message for the industry: Less sugar is possible

Healthy product development The current food environment is characterized by the wide availability of unhealthy products with high…

Edulia Conference – Florence June 2022

The final conference was planned and rescheduled several times. The original plan was to organise a conference together…

New paper: Development of an emoji-based self-report measurement tool to measure emotions elicited by foods in preadolescents

Julia Sick (ESR3) and her team from of the University of Florence (UNIFI), Prof. Erminio Monteleone, Prof Caterina…

Final Consortium Meeting and General Assembly

The final Edulia consortium meeting, was held in beautiful Florence, Italy, June 20th. It was a pleasure to…

Edulia Conference programme

Here is the final  program for the Edulia conference: Agenda Edulia Conference 2022 . A condensed version is…

New thesis: The Role of Emotions, Personality Traits, and Sensory Sensitivity in Preadolescents’ Food Preferences

Julia Sick, ESR 3, successfully defended her thesis: “The Role of Emotions, Personality Traits, and Sensory Sensitivity in…

New thesis: New methodologies in sensory and consumer research with preadolescents to guide product development of healthy, child-centered food

Martina Galler successfully defended her PhD thesis “New methodologies in sensory and consumer research with preadolescents to guide…

New paper: Listening to children voices in early stages of new product development through co-creation – Creative focus group and online platform

Martina Galler (ESR1) recently published a paper exploring the co-creation of healthy snack ideas with children through creative…

New paper – Parenthood as a window of opportunity for dietary changes: perspectives from Uruguayan parents 

Edulia researchers at UdelaR and Aarhus University came together to investigate dietary changes in the transition to parenthood…

Edulia Conference – Bringing down barriers to children’s healthy eating, 21st-22nd June

Here is preliminary program for the final Edulia conference, for more details on the conference, please follow this link …

Edulia final conference postponed

As everything looked bright the previous fall, we were hopeful to organize  a conference presenting results from Edulia…

Make the sensory testing fun for preadolescents! The use of gamification in the sensory test setup with children

By: Ervina (#ESR2) “Are you ready to become a taste detective?” that was the first phrase presented to…

Measuring basic tastes and fattiness sensitivity in preadolescents and the relation to children’s food liking

By: Ervina (#ESR2) Children have different perceptions on how they respond to taste. The same concentration of bitter…

New thesis: Transitioning to parenthood: Factors influencing new parents’ healthy eating behaviours and strategies for change

Another PhD defence among the ESRs! Andreia F. Moura, ESR8, successfully defended the thesis: “Transitioning to parenthood: Factors…

A remote sensory testing during Covid-19 pandemic with preadolescents

In Autumn, 2020, Europe was hit by the second wave of Covid-19 with remarkable numbers of infected cases…

New Paper: Measuring basic tastes and fattiness sensitivity in preadolescents and the relation to children’s food liking

Children have different perceptions on how they respond to taste. For example, the same concentration of bitter and…

New Paper: Preadolescents’ taste sensitivity is associated with their eating behaviour

Studies investigating the associations between taste sensitivity and eating behaviour in preadolescent children are still limited. Ervina, ESR2…

New thesis: Taste sensitivity in pre-adolescent children

Ervina (ESR2) defended recently her thesis entitled “Taste sensitivity and food liking in pre-adolescent children”. In this research…

New thesis: Peer, sibling and social media influence on preadolescent children’s healthy eating behaviour

November the 17th, Tija Rageliene (ESR9) defended her thesis “Peer, sibling and social media influence on preadolescent children’s…

New paper: Does Responsiveness to Basic Tastes Influence Preadolescents’ Food Liking? Investigating Taste Responsiveness Segment on Bitter-Sour-Sweet and Salty-Umami Model Food Samples

Earlier this year Ervina (ESR2) and co-workers published a study on the relationship between taste responsiveness and food…

New thesis on conceptual knowledge about food and links to food rejection

On the 25th of October, Abigail Pickard defended her  thesis “Spilling the beans: The development of conceptual knowledge…

New paper: Children’s sweet tooth: Explicit ratings vs. Implicit bias measured by the Approach avoidance task (AAT)

Martina Galler (ESR1) recently published a paper in collaboration with her supervisors, Paula Varela, Tormod Næs, Kristian Hovde…

New PhD on maternal and paternal feeding practices

A big congratulation to Kaat Philippe who Friday 22.10.2021  defended her thesis in psychology. The thesis was entitled…

First PhD in Edulia on sugar reduction in dairy products targeted at children

Last week, Ana Laura Velázquez defended her PhD as the first ESR in the Edulia consortium. The defense…

New paper: How do French parents determine portion sizes for their pre-schooler? A qualitative exploration of the parent-child division of responsibility and influencing factors

Serving large portion sizes to children can make them overeat. They can make children overrule their inner sensations…

New paper: Information seeking of French parents regarding infant and young child feeding: practices, needs and determinants

Sofia De Rosso (ESR6) recently published a paper (open access) exploring practices, needs and determinants of information seeking…

New paper: The Perceptions and Needs of French Parents and Pediatricians Concerning Information on Complementary Feeding

The importance of complementary feeding (CoF) for the establishment of healthy eating behaviors from infancy is well known.…

New paper: Are food parenting practices gendered? Impact of mothers’ and fathers’ practices on their child’s eating behaviors.

Past research has mainly focused on the links between mothers’ feeding practices and children’s eating behaviors. Fathers have…

New paper: The influence of label information on the snacks parents choose for their children: Individual differences in a choice based conjoint test

Products targeted at children use several eye-catching elements to attract children and convey the idea that they are…

New paper: The role of peers, siblings and social media for children’s healthy eating socialization: a mixed methods study

Eating is More Than Food Only or why Social Context Matters for Your Child’s Healthy Development by Tija…

Award to Edulia Early stage researcher

One of the early stage researchers (ESRs) in Edulia, Abigail Pickard  in the cognitive science research team at…

New paper: Can children use temporal sensory methods to describe visual and food stimuli?

Research suggests that children can use sensory temporal methods to describe visual stimuli, but refinements are needed for…

New paper: The Meaning of Emoji to Describe Food Experiences in Pre-Adolescents

Julia Sick (ESR3) recently published a paper on the meaning of emoji to describe food experiences in preadolescents…

New paper: Dutch Preadolescents’ Food Consumption at School

Roselinde van Nee (ESR4) published her first PhD paper in collaboration with her supervisors Ellen van Kleef and…

Institut Paul Bocuse

Edulia webinar from Institut Paul Bocuse: Cognitive and Social variables modulating food rejection (or acceptance) in children.

Edulia partner Institut Paul Bocuse Research Center will organises a webinar the 29th of April on cognitive and…

New paper: Strawberries and Cream: The Relationship between Food Rejection and Thematic Knowledge of Food in Young Children

Abigail Pickard (ESR10) recently published a paper on the relationship between food rejection and thematic knowledge of food…

Oscar and Sophies’ vegetable friends 

ESR8 Andreia and her supervisor, Jessica Aschemann-Witzel developed a storybook to increase children and fathers’ willingness to try new vegetables…

Edulia webinar on children and healthy eating – with video from the seminar

On February the 4th, Edulia organised a webinar on children and healthy eating in with invited speakers from…

Video of father & daughter enjoying the superpowers of healthy eating! 

Fifteen Danish families are taking part in “My daddy is a food explorer” – a food intervention for fathers&kids. In previous investigation Danish…

Secondment at the MAPP centre, Aarhus University, Denmark – Kaat Philippe (ESR7)

The year 2020 was a special year, and that’s even an understatement. The highly contagious coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 sparked…

Infographics: Recommendations on how to tackle nutrition issues among parents

A recent study suggest that parents feel overwhelmed wit online nutrition content about sugar and other dietary issues.…

New paper: Children as food designers: The potential of co-creation to make the healthy choice the preferred one

Martina Galler (ESR1) recently published an opinion paper in collaboration with her supervisor, Paula Varela and a college…

New paper: Significant sugar-reduction in dairy products targeted at children is possible without affecting hedonic perception

Dairy products are an important part of children’s diet. However, a large proportion of the products targeted at…

New paper: Perspectives on sugar consumption expressed on social media by French-speaking and Danish-speaking parents

 The results suggest that online nutrition content about sugar causes negative feelings and distress among parents The research…

Impressions from Eurosense – A sense of Innovation

Eurosense is organised every second year. The chairs of this years conference were Kees de Graaf and Betina…

Starting a new position during a pandemic

When I got offered the junior researcher position in Wageningen I got extremely excited. Just after completing my…

An Early Stage Researcher’s diary during corona times 

Andreia (ESR8) have written a blog-post on her experiences during the Covid-19 situation: I feel lucky and in…

Get to know the early stage researchers – interview with Carina Mueller – new ESR in the project

The Edulia consortium is happy to present a new ESR in the network. Carina Mueller has recently started…

New paper: Do Basic Tastes and Fattiness Sensitivity Influence Food Liking in Preadolescents?

There have been different studies established in the field of taste sensitivity and food liking. However, it is…

PhD life: some anecdotes on struggles, growth and passion from ESR8-Andreia

Not every PhD is the same, that’s for sure. Factors like your university rules and regulations, your topic…

What it is like to be Early Stage Researcher during the Covid-19-situation

All the ten ESRs in Edulia are doing their work away from their home countries, and some of…

New paper: Preadolescents’healthy eating behavior:peeping through the social norms approach

Tija Rageliene (ESR9) recently published a paper one how social norms influence preadolescents eating behaviour in BMC public…

Foodwiser: A podcast with Edulia insights and beyond  

ESR8-Andreia has created a series of short podcast episodes to share insights on how to deal with an…

New paper: How children approach a CATA test influences the outcome. Insights on ticking styles from two case studies with 6–9-year old children

 Martina Galler (ESR1) recently published her first paper “How children approach a CATA test influences the outcome. Insights…

Two-year position open for early stage researchers (ESR)

Wageningen University and Research in The Netherlands has a 2-year ESR position (junior researcher, no PhD position) available…

Impact of parenthood on eating behaviours: practical guidance for health professionals

After 35 hours of interviews and 500 pages of discourses analyzed, ESR8-Andreia and her supervisor Jessica Aschemann-Witzel, published…

New paper: Early parenthood can represent either a downturn or an opportunity for healthy eating behaviours: Study results with practical guidance for health professionals

Andreia Ferreira Moura (ESR8) recently published her first Edulia paper in the journal Appetite. The paper is entitled…

New paper: Children’s selection of emojis to express food-elicited emotions in varied eating contexts

Julia Sick (ESR3) recently published her first paper within EDULIA in “Food Quality and Preference”. The paper is…

DO WE EAT HEALTHIER AFTER BECOMING PARENTS?

ESR8, Andreia F. Moura has conducted a literature review on barriers for healthy eating along the transition to…

Smell Detection Game and the Flavor vs Taste Experiment – different languages

In our  tips to keep up healthy eating during quarantine, number 4 is “Play with your food, for…

Infographics: QUALITY FOOD TIME IN QUARANTINE – different languages

In this post,  Edulias early stage researchers present 5 tips to make quality food time whilst in quarantine.…

Edulia presents: QUALITY FOOD TIME IN QUARANTINE 

Staying at home for an extended period of time can be difficult, and healthy eating can be extra…

New paper: The influence of peers′ and siblings′ on children’s and adolescents′ healthy eating behavior

Eating together with friends is not always good for children and adolescents. Eating together with siblings is still…

Secondment at Santé publique France – Sofia de Rosso (ESR6)

It has been just over a year now that I started my PhD within the Edulia project and…

How is Edulia affected by the Corona situation?

The closing down of universities, research centres and schools across many countries in Europe, has of course influenced…

New paper: The ability of 10–11-year-old children to identify basic tastes and their liking towards unfamiliar foods

Ervina (ESR2) recently published her first paper in “Food quality and preference” (open access). A summary of the…

Edulia fun facts

Research involves data collection, this can be observations, interviews, questionnaires, measurements or a combination of several. In Edulia…

Institut Paul Bocuse

Experiences ESR7 Kaat Philippe – Secondment Institut Paul Bocuse, Ecully, France

First of September, back to school! Well, this year I could share children’s excitement to go back to…

Cross-modal interactions as a strategy for sugar reduction in products targeted at children: Case study with vanilla milk desserts

Ana Laura Velàzques (ESR11) recently published her first paper in “Food Research International”. A summary of the paper…

Paper on why children accept or reject foods

ESR3, Julia Sick at the University of Florence (Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry) recently published her…

Did you know that Norwegian children eat ramen after school?

In my co-creation experiment where we wanted to develop a healthy snack idea with 10-12-year-old children I asked…

Children preferred to be product developers instead of helping an alien

My first experiment had the aim to develop healthy snack ideas with 10-12-year-old children in a co-creation approach.…

Cross-cultural data collection on new parents’ eating behaviors

In August 2019, ESR8 Andreia had the opportunity to visit UdelaR (Universidad de la República) in Uruguay, aiming…

School-based interventions to promote water consumption 

Did you know that drinking water can improve children’s attention and memory? In this way, drinking water may…

Sweets as comfort: facing the post-partum period

Several factors related to the period following childbirth (post-partum) may increase the consumption of sweets by new parents.…

A Fear of Food? Breaking barriers in children’s mistrust for food

The relationship young children have with food appears to be as turbulent as a Boeing 737 flight; with…

The Role of Emotions in Children’s Food Preferences

How are emotions and food related? On the one hand, emotions and moods can influence what food we…

On the Creation of Conscious Eaters

I chose the pathway of a researcher because of my passion about food behavior and sensory science. We,…

Your Diet Means More Than You Think. 

Early morning as always. Some morning routine as always. Some morning exercise, but just on special occasions, a…

What do they see in You?

Significant adults in children environment can form children’s food choice and much more.    It was a lazy Sunday…

ESRs receive prices at conferences and workshops

Poster prize to Kaat Philippe (ESR7) Kaat won the poster prize for her presentation at the ‘Forum des…

Sweet Sweet Dairy!

I am an early state researcher at the Universidad de la Republica in Uruguay. I will investigate strategies…

Early stage researchers have been on secondments

All Early Sage Researchers (ESRs) must conduct secondments, both academic and industrial, as a part of their training…

Pre-adolescents don’t know what parsnip is

#ESR9: My Pilot Study in Lithuania and vegetable preferences I am just in love with the topic of…

Role models in children’s eating behavior  

Most of us know that only eating chocolate is not healthy, but does your 3-years-old child know this…

Early stage researcher activities in Edulia

In this video Roselinde Van Nee (ESR4) tells about her planned research activities. https://vimeo.com/310501427

Why children like candies and tend to reject broccoli?

There is clear evidence that most children prefer chocolate bar and candies rather than a handful of grapes…

How fruit consumption at schools can be increased through nudging

As children grow older, they are becoming more independent, with more freedom, money and food choices. Nowadays, it…

Children spent a huge amount of time with their friends and peers and the relationship with them have a significant influence on their development.

I am Tija Rageliene, an Early Stage Researcher, studying preadolescents, and the influence peers and siblings have on…

How can sweet taste preferences be changed? 

There is a clear, evidence-based global public health mandate to limit the consumption of free sugars in the…

Guiding parents through the initiation of complementary feeding

Having a baby makes a big change in the life of new parents. After six months, another important step has to…

The earlier the better 

Only by listening to parents, to their own needs, we will be able to create health environments for…

Children as co-creators of a healthy food product

Is it possible to generate a product idea for a healthy snack or drink option with children? Can…

Taste detectives for a day

The two early stage researchers Ervina and Martina Galler have been piloting Edulia research protocols at a Norwegian…

Get to know the early stage researchers – interview with María (ESR5)

The last early stage researcher to join the Edulia team is María Dueñas from Madrid, Spain who soon…

Get to know the early stage researchers – interview with Abigail (ESR10)

In this video you will meet Abigail Pickard whi comes from the North of England, but is now…

Get to know the early stage researchers – interview with Kaat (ESR7)

Below you can read about Kaat Philippe who will work at INRA, Dijon in France. Her research will…

Get to know the early stage researchers – interview with Sofia (ESR6)

In this interview we present ESR6, Sofia De Rosso from Italy who will work in INRA in Dijon,…

Get to know the early stage researchers – interview with Andreia (ESR8)

Here we introduce you to ESR8 Andreia Ferreira de Moura from Brazil, who will do her PhD in…

Get to know the early stage researchers – interview with Tija (ESR9)

Here we introduce you to the last of the ESRs who will work on the group of pre-adolescents.…

Current trends in children research

Eurosense was held this year in early September in beautiful Verona. We digged into the conference programme to…

Get to know the early stage researchers – interview with Roselinde (ESR4)

In this video you will meet Marie-Curie PhD student Roselinde van Nee. Roselinde tells about her background, her…

Get to know the early stage researchers – interview with Martina (ESR1)

Meet Martina Galler from Switzerland who soon will leave a fixed position in the food industry to do…

Get to know the early stage researchers – interview with Ana (ESR11)

Ana has just started on her way to PhD at Universidad de la República in Uruguay, where she…

Get to know the early stage researchers – interview with Julia (ESR3)

Julia is about to start as Edulia position ESR3 at the University of Florence in Italy. Her research…

Get to know the early stage researchers – interview with Ervina (ESR2)

Ervina will soon move from the million city of Jakarta in Indonesia to the small village Ås in…

Edulia in prime time TV in Norway

Nofima’s activities on children and sensory science was presented prime time in Norwegian television, on the show “Norge…

How Can Children be Encouraged to Eat Healthily?

Nofima is leading a new doctoral programme aimed at finding new ways to tackle the challenge of obesity.…

Edulia positions

We are recruiting 11 Marie-Curie PhD POSITIONS in the project EDULIA, on Children healthy eating. The program is…

Bringing down barriers to children’s healthy eating

Edulia responds to the urgent need of the EU society to find new ways to tackle the escalating…