Mixed foods are similarly categorized by 8–13 year old children

Abstract

Food search in a computerized 24 hour recall (24hdr) for children should be easiest when the categories reflect children's categorization of foods, in contrast to professional categories. This study assessed how 8-13 year old children categorized and labeled mixed foods (e.g. fried rice, lasagna), and how these were influenced by child characteristics. A set of 48 cards with pictures and names of mixed foods from 14 professionally defined food groups was sorted by each child into piles of similar foods. Participants (n= 146), including 8 to13 year old 130 English speaking, and 16 Spanish speaking children, attended data collection in the summer, 2006. One way ANOVA, pairwise comparisons and Robinson matrices for identification of clusters were used. Children created an average of 10.5 (± 5.5) piles with 6.0 (±4.1) cards per pile. No substantial differences in Robinson clustering were detected across subcategories for each of the demographic characteristics, body mass index, or 6-n-propylthiouracil sensitivity. For the majority of the piles, children provided "Taxonomic-Professional" (26.0%) labels, such as Vegetables, Sandwiches and Drinks, or "Specificfood item" (23.0%) labels, i.e. the name of the food. These categories may be used to facilitate mixed food search in a computerized 24hdr for children in this age group.

Diverse Food Items Are Similarly Categorized by 8- to 13-year-old Children

“…Inter study comparisons revealed Script and Taxonomic categories were also the most used in the other reports, but in the case of the Mixed dishes study, Specific Foods was the second most commonly used category (19). Children classified and labeled foods depending on the context of other foods in the set.…”

“…Methods similar to those used in this study were applied to different groups of food items: mixed foods (19), fruit and vegetables (20), and grain foods (21). Inter study comparisons revealed Script and Taxonomic categories were also the most used in the other reports, but in the case of the Mixed dishes study, Specific Foods was the second most commonly used category (19).…”

“…For example, corn was categorized under Meal (lunch or dinner) in this card sort and under Vegetables when grouped in a Mixed Dishes (19) card sort, and in a vegetable sub category in a Vegetable card sort (20). Milk was categorized in Drinks in this card sort, but Dairy in the Mix Dishes card sort (19). Context specific classification was called crossclassification and flexibility in classifying foods in other studies (11,15).…”

Fruit and vegetables are similarly categorised by 8–13-year-old children

“…This pattern of using more complex classifications of food items was found in card sorts with different food items (26,27) . This suggests prevalent common knowledge of food group categories.…”

“…To minimise possible sequence and fatigue effects, the sequence of card sort tasks was randomly assigned. Card sort 1 was composed of diverse single food items (26) , card sort 2 contained mixed food items (27) , card sort 3 included only fruit, card sort 4 included only vegetables, which were analysed for this manuscript and card sort 5 contained diverse grains and cereals (28) . Children were scheduled to perform the card sort activities across two days, except for those with an early morning appointment who had time to finish all the activities in one day.…”