Hedonic and Word Association Techniques Confirm a Successful Way of Introducing Fish into Public School Meals

This study aimed to evaluate the acceptance of fish meatballs introduced into the lunch of 132 6‐ to 14‐year‐old students at a public school in Brazil. Responses were obtained using a seven‐point facial hedonic scale and the word association method was used to determine children's cognitive perception of the product. We used multinomial logistic regression to evaluate the effects of age and gender on the acceptance of fish meatballs and established a predictive model for different acceptance levels. The technique known as correspondence analysis was used to verify the relationship between the acceptance rates or student's age with the terms that emerged during the word association. Results showed that age was significantly and inversely correlated with the acceptance of fish meatballs. The cognitive evaluation of the word association results through the word association technique demonstrated that the preferences of the younger students are given by the appearance of the fish meatballs, and, in as they grow older, their cognitions become more . We found that the word association can be effectively used for cognitive assessment in children, and fish meatballs proved to be a potentially accepted food in school meals of the Brazilian public education. Practical Applications Fish is considered as a high nutritional value food in the diet. However, it has low acceptance among children. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the attributes and insights that lead the children to accept a fish‐based product.