Considering Taste for a Holistic National School Lunch Program

What exactly are taste preferences? Taste preferences are a fascinating intersection of biology, experience, and culture. They determine the food delights that tempt our tongues and that we choose to nourish our bodies. Understanding these preferences shapes our taste journey. Our taste buds can detect five basic flavors: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (savory). These fundamental tastes hold evolutionary significance. Sweetness often indicates a source of energy, sourness can signify spoilage, salt is crucial for bodily functions, bitterness can warn of toxins, and umami signals the presence of protein (National Geographic 2023).

Children’s taste preferences are naturally influenced from the “inside”, such as biological and physiological conditions, sensitivity, and genes. These explain an innate tendency for children to prefer sweet, salty, and fatty tastes, and to avoid foods that taste bitter and sour (Reed and Knaapila 2010; Ervina et al. 2020). According to a study, children’s preference for sweet tastes is linked to a period of rapid growth due to an increased demand for energy needs (Coldwell et al. 2009). This natural process drives their taste buds to crave sweet foods. Moreover, a high sensitivity to bitter sensations underlies why children do not fancy bitter foods like vegetables (Negri et al. 2012).

Despite this biological predisposition, taste preferences can be very personal, depending on each individual. Some children indeed only like sweet foods and have difficulty eating foods that are not sweet, while others can eat bitter and/or sour foods with ease. Repeated exposure during the early period of life to certain tastes is strongly believed as a determinant that drives their personal preferences for tastes. In addition, children’s environments like family, sibling and peer influences, advertisements, and food access and availability likely determine how intense their exposure to foods with certain flavors, further shaping their taste preferences (Mura Paroche et al. 2017). For instance, busy parents may have children who are addicted to sweet and salty foods because they don’t have enough time to cook and frequently give their children practical foods like instant foods or snacks, which usually contain high sugar and salt.

A confluence of tradition and global influences plays a part in shaping children’s taste preferences. Particularly in Indonesia, children are familiar with the comforting flavors of Indonesian heritage. The sweet and savory tastes are on their tongues with dishes like kolak, a warm coconut milk soup brimming with fruit, and rendang, a slow-cooked meat dish bursting with aromatics and chilies. This unique interaction between sweetness and umami introduces children to the characteristic flavors of Indonesian cuisine. Meanwhile, globalization, indicated by the rise of international fast-food restaurant chains and brands, influences the taste buds of Indonesian children by introducing a variety of tastes that are quite distinct from traditional tastes. The allure of processed foods that are sweeter, saltier, and even fattier, such as french fries and sodas, presents an alternative that is more interesting than the flavors of their heritage. Moreover, fast food consumption is associated with welfare and high social status.

The government policy also influences the food preferences of Indonesian people. Indonesia has started incorporating wheat-based foods for daily consumption since the early 1970s. Many Indonesians like these processed wheat products because of several reasons, including the flexibility in processing and the suitability of taste. Children, in particular, love to eat very sweet cupcakes or biscuits made from wheat flour and sugar with additional toppings like fat chocolate because it is accessible and food markets provide it.

Sensory pleasures derived from the taste of foods play a crucial role in determining food intake and subsequently impact children’s nutritional outcomes. As mentioned earlier, sweet, salty, and fatty are flavors that children most fancy. Unfortunately, today’s food environment is dominated by ultra-processed foods (UPFs) that contain a tremendous amount of sugar, salt, and fat, raising significant concerns. This condition grants children unlimited access to these unhealthy foods. Furthermore, their natural instinct to choose sugary and fatty foods, coupled with the availability of flavors that align with their taste preferences, leads to the elevated consumption of these processed foods in children. There is growing evidence that consuming processed foods increases the risk of nutrition-related health problems like childhood obesity.

It becomes fundamental to reshape and guide children’s taste preferences toward healthier food choices. For example, the sweet taste preference can actually be leveraged to encourage children to consume more fruits, which not only contain natural sugar that can satisfy them, but also are rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. As one of the most vulnerable groups, school-aged children experience different food-related influences from their school environment since a third of their time is spent at school. In addition, the lack of parental and teacher monitoring opens opportunities for children to excessively consume unhealthy foods available around the school. Given this condition, holistic solutions are essential to address this concern.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), schools play a significant role in promoting good eating habits among school-aged children. Soon, the free school lunch program will be executed by the new government of Indonesia. Implementing a local food curriculum in the national school lunch program emerges as a more holistic solution to assist schoolchildren in improving their food choices toward healthier foods that are locally available. To execute this strategy effectively, it must receive support from all the related stakeholders, including the school board, creative teacher companions, and school committees, and establish good connections with community partners. In addition, this local food literacy education should be delivered in a fun way to engage children. Learning through play, such as multisensory activities, can be designed in the curriculum to build familiarity with foods they consume by engaging all five senses altogether (sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste). This way of learning has been scientifically evident to increase the variety of foods enjoyed by children (Kamarudin et al. 2023). Other activities, such as field trips to the place where the local foods are cultivated and harvested, hold the potential to increase children’s awareness and appreciation, improving their food preferences.

In conclusion, taste preferences are a complex interplay of biology, experience, and cultural influences that significantly impact children’s food choices and nutritional outcomes. While biological factors like innate preferences for sweet, salty, and fatty tastes exist, individual experiences, environmental factors, and societal influences also play crucial roles in shaping these preferences. The prevalence of ultra-processed foods in today’s food environment poses a challenge, as it encourages children to consume unhealthy foods high in sugar, salt, and fat. This condition underlies a need for reshaping and guiding children’s taste preferences toward healthier food choices. Schools play a crucial role in encouraging good eating habits among schoolchildren. The implementation of a local food curriculum in the upcoming national school lunch program holds the potential to assist these children in improving their food choices while enjoying more varieties of foods that are locally available.

References

Coldwell SE, Oswald TK, Reed DR. 2009. A marker of growth differs between adolescents with high vs low sugar preference. Physiology & Behavior. 96:574–580.

Ervina E, Berget I, Almli V. 2020. Investigating the relationship between basic taste sensitivities, fattiness sensitivity, and food liking in 11-year-old children. Foods. 9(9):1315.

Kamarudin MS, Sharil MR, Haron H, Kadar M, Safii NS, Hamzaid NH. 2023. Interventions for picky eaters among typically developed children — a scoping review. Nutrients. 15(1):242.

Mura Paroche M, Caton SJ, Vereijken CMJL, Weenen H, Houston-Price C. 2017. How Infants and Young Children Learn About Food: A Systematic Review. Front Psychol. 8:1046.

National Geographic Society. 2023. A matter of taste. Available at https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/matter-taste-wbt/ (Accessed: 12 March 2024).

Negri R, Di Feola M, Di Domenico S, Scala MG, Artesi G, Valente S, Smarrazzo A, Turco F, Morini G, Greco L. 2012. Taste perception and food choices. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 54(5):624–629.

Reed DR, Knaapila A. 2010. Genetics of taste and smell: Poisons and pleasures. Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci. 94: 213–240.