Power of packaging: Evaluations of packaged fruits and vegetables by school-age children in the U.S

Eating healthfully is a challenge in the US; most American children do not eat enough fruits and vegetables and exceed daily recommendations for salts, fats, and sugars. The pervasiveness of packaged foods, which are often reduced in nutritional value through added salt, fat, or sugar, adds to the challenge of eating healthfully. There is still much to learn about how aspects of packaging impact children. This study examined how different types of packaging (i.e., healthy, fun, plain, unpackaged) of fruits and vegetables influence children's health and taste evaluations. Thirty children (Mage = 7.1 years, SD = 1.0) participated in a food rating task where they rated the health, taste, and their willingness to try 64 packaged fruits and vegetables (on a scale from 1 to 5). Children were influenced by aspects of the packaging; they rated healthy and fun packaging more favorably in most cases suggesting that children respond more positively to visually appealing packaging than to plain packaging. These results are consistent with previous findings and have implications for how to promote increased fruit and vegetable consumption among children. Future research should explore if the same trends exist when packaged fruits and vegetables are compared to other packaged snack foods.