National Kids Science Festival ‘Expedite Next’

For the second time, the Sensory Science and Eating Behaviour Group (SSEB) participated in the National Kids Science Festival ‘Expeditie NEXT’, organized by NWO, this year in Enkhuizen. On the 1st of May, families took part in our “Ratatouille Taste Adventure” and explored the science behind eating behaviour, oral processing, taste perception, and food texture preferences. Research from the Sensory Science and Eating Behaviour Group (SSEB) chair group (read more here on page 30, here, and here) has shown the importance of early-life eating behaviours, texture preferences, and food preferences in the development of healthy dietary patterns and growth – but what can we learn from children chewing gum at a science festival?

The team organized a series of fun activities in which children discovered their own eating rate using our ‘carrot test’, compared their behaviours to those of parents and siblings, and tested their chewing efficiency by mixing a two-coloured chewing gum.

Families further explored food texture preferences by choosing between foods such as smooth versus chunky jam, orange juice with or without pulp, and hard versus soft bread. And of course, there was also room for creativity, with smell-inspired colouring activities and beautiful drawings on dinner plates.

The day required a huge team effort, with 12 SSEB researchers and students collecting data from more than 150 families (~360 participants) to help us better understand:
• How similar are families in their eating speed?
• How does chewing efficiency change during school age?
• Do children’s eating behaviours relate to their preference for different food textures?
• Does within-family birth order influence children's eating behaviour?
• Do early-life feeding practices associate with children’s eating behaviours later in childhood?

Most of all, it was a fantastic sunny day filled with great teamwork and many enthusiastic children. We are proud of our incredible team for all the hard work that went into the preparation and for making the day such a fun success!