3. Results
3.1. Participant characteristics
Participant characteristics are provided in Table 3. The target
vegetables of the study were not amongst the most liked nor the
most disliked, ranking 7th (sweet potato), 10th (beans) and 13th
(cauliflower) out of 24 vegetables. Cooking methods used for preparation
were commonly used by parents when preparing these
vegetables for their children at home. French beans (84%) and cauliflower
(75%) were mostly prepared boiled or steamed; the second
most used method was stir fried (39%) for beans and baked (28%)
for cauliflower. Sweet potato was served baked (62%), as a mash
(30%) and boiled (11%). Children were largely unfamiliar with the
atypically coloured varieties studied, as more than 80% had never
consumed them before. Vegetable FFQ data of parents (not further
discussed in the present paper) were found to over report substantially.
Children’s FFQ data were also high, which may suggest similar
over reporting, but may also be partially due to a high
consumption of vegetables in mixed dishes, such as stir fries and
stews. Parents reported a high consumption of these dishes in open
ended questions.
3.1.1. Expected preference
Significant differences in expected preference were found within
each vegetable type (Table 4, sweet potato p = 0.003; cauliflower
and beans p < 0.0001). Post-hoc testing showed that in each vegetable
type, the atypically coloured sample was chosen significantly
more often (sweet potato p = 0.01; cauliflower and beans
p < 0.0001), and the baked or stir fried sample significantly less often
(all p values < 0.007) as the sample the children thought they
would prefer. It may be that children had lower expectations about
the taste of the familiar typically coloured vegetables and thereby
chose them less often.