Preschoolers’ liking of citrus fruits served as a mid-morning snack

The 5-year-old hedonic response to six citrus fruits was explored by actual tasting of the samples in a natural environment of consumption. The samples (fresh fruits and their juices) were served to children during mid-morning snack at school and children were asked to rate their liking on 5-point non-gender facial scale. This study showed that citrus fruit liking varied (p < 0.001) across samples. Overall, all the citrus fruits were appreciated, even though not equally, by children who showed a large amount of inter-individual differences in responding to the samples under study. Grapefruit was disliked by the majority of children. Liking depended largely on the citrus fruit type and moderately on the form in which citrus fruits were presented to children. This effect is linear because the six juices were significantly preferred (p < 0.001) to fresh fruit samples. Sex bias on liking was significant (p < 0.001). Parental reports on children's neophobic status, the frequency of in-home citrus fruit consumption, and mother's likes of citrus were associated significantly (p < 0.001) with citrus liking. The heterogeneous hedonic response of children calls for a proper selection of the citrus fruit type and of the form in which citrus are served to engineer an appealing fruit snack.