Piochi Maria, Fino Michele Antonio, Torri Luisa
University of Gastronomic Sciences, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, 9, 12060 Pollenzo, Italy.
Foods. 2025 May 16;14(10):1777. doi: 10.3390/foods14101777.
Food neophobia (FN) has been poorly explored in real contexts and in large-scale studies with children. This study assessed the impact of FN in children on school canteen meals by considering liking, emotional status, and food waste behaviours. We involved 630 children (7-11 years old; females = 53%) from nine Italian primary schools. The main self-reported variables that were collected included pleasure of eating in the canteen, declared liking for different foods, emotional responses, meal description, and food waste. The characteristics of low neophobia (LN), medium neophobia (MN), and high neophobia (HN) were comparable between genders and provenience and did not differ by the pleasure of eating at home. Children with HN had the lowest frequency of eating in the canteen, the highest self-reported amount of wasted food, and the lowest liking for all items, especially vegetables and legumes; they selected mostly emotions with negative valence and described the meal as more uncomfortable and boring. Instead, children exhibiting LN used positive emotions with high arousal to describe the meal and found it a little boring, while those with MN showed an intermediate attitude. Children with HN may benefit from familiarisation actions to accept non-domestic meals and reduce food waste in non-familiar environments. Improving school canteen contexts (e.g., the socialising possibility) can modulate children's emotional responses and reduce food waste.
在实际环境以及针对儿童的大规模研究中，对食物恐惧（FN）的探讨一直较少。本研究通过考虑喜好、情绪状态和食物浪费行为，评估了儿童食物恐惧对学校食堂膳食的影响。我们纳入了来自九所意大利小学的630名儿童（7至11岁；女性占53%）。收集的主要自我报告变量包括在食堂用餐的愉悦感、对不同食物的喜好程度、情绪反应、膳食描述以及食物浪费情况。低食物恐惧（LN）、中等食物恐惧（MN）和高食物恐惧（HN）儿童在性别和来源方面的特征具有可比性，且在家用餐的愉悦感并无差异。高食物恐惧儿童在食堂用餐的频率最低，自我报告的食物浪费量最高，对所有食物的喜好程度最低，尤其是蔬菜和豆类；他们大多选择具有负性情绪效价的情绪，并将膳食描述为更不舒服和无聊。相反，低食物恐惧儿童用高唤醒的积极情绪来描述膳食，且觉得有点无聊，而中等食物恐惧儿童则表现出一种中间态度。高食物恐惧儿童可能会从熟悉化行动中受益，以接受非本土膳食并减少在不熟悉环境中的食物浪费。改善学校食堂环境（例如社交可能性）可以调节儿童的情绪反应并减少食物浪费。
