The Child Food Neophobia Scale (CFNS) is a validated 10-item scale
that uses parental report to assess children’s willingness to sample new foods, scores on which correlate highly with behavioural mea- sures of neophobia (Pliner & Hobden, 1992). Four items were ex- cluded from the original CFNS on the basis that they were inappropriate for the age range of the sample. Excluded items were: My child likes to eat in ethnic restaurants; My child likes foods from different countries; At dinner parties, my child will try different foods; Ethnic food looks weird to my child. The six remaining items were: My child does not trust new foods; If my child doesn’t know what’s in a food, she/he won’t try it; My child is afraid to eat things she/ he has never tried before; My child will eat almost anything (reverse scored); My child is very particular about the foods she/he will eat; and My child is constantly sampling new and different foods (reverse scored). Responses were rated on a four-point Likert scale from “strongly disagree” (1) to “strongly agree” (4). Total child food neo- phobia score was computed (Cronbach’s α = 0.92), with higher scores indicating a stronger behavioural display of neopho