Taste the feeling or feel the tasting: Tactile exposure to food texture promotes food acceptance

Afterwards, children were asked to taste 3 desserts (inbalanced order): smooth strawberry yoghurt, strawberry yoghurt with pieces and strawberry jelly. Results showed that the children in the exposure condition ate specifically more of the jelly dessert – the texture of which they had been pre-exposed to - compared to the children in control condition. No group differences were found for the other two desserts.

The results imply that feeling the texture of a food with hands increases the acceptance of food with the same texture. Playing with food with hands seems therefore be a first step in getting familiar with food and might help to increase variety of food intake.