Study: Children Have Greater Recognition of Unhealthy Food Brands

10 Jun 2014 --- A child’s awareness of food brands is highest for unhealthy foods, according to a new study from Ireland. The study also identified that this awareness increases greatly between the ages of three and four. The study, by the School of Psychology at University College Dublin, included 172 children in Ireland aged between three and five years old.

A quarter of these children were from Northern Ireland where marketing regulations differ from other parts of the country. Over half of those surveyed attended schools in disadvantaged communities, according to local government data.

Researchers, who surveyed the children individually, asked each child if they could identify the food brand based on the logo.

At all ages, kids were better at recognizing less healthy foods. These findings were less dictated by TV time or their mother’s education levels, the researchers found, but they were most strongly predicted by how much unhealthy food their parents ate.

Food-brand knowledge predicts what kids will ask for later, said lead author Mimi Tatlow-Golden of the School of Psychology at University College Dublin. Although parents’ eating habits were the most important predictor of what kids recognized, “advertising affects parental eating as well”, she said.

 “In the states even where we’ve got some regulation happening, 80 percent of foods advertised are unhealthy,” she said. “Here it’s 50 percent, and we would say that’s still way too much.”

The news follows research published earlier this month which showed there are still some alarming misconceptions’ about food by the UK’s population of school children, according to research by the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF). The latest BNF study showed that more than half of secondary school children believe that carbohydrate is more calorific than fat, while 14% of 8-11 year-olds surveyed thought bread came from animals.

The survey was carried out across 4,300 nursery, primary and secondary schools.

“For the second year running our research shows that the majority of 11-16 year olds (52%) believe that carbohydrate provides more energy than either fat or protein when, in fact, fat is more calorific,” explained education programme manager, Roy Ballam. “This misunderstanding is worrying when considered in relation to obesity.”

On the whole, secondary school children’s knowledge about micronutrients is encouraging with nearly three quarters (74%) accurately matching vitamin C with citrus fruit and 83% matching calcium with dairy products.

But BNF’s research illustrates that while the majority of children have a good understanding about food origins and provenance, there are still misconceptions to be addressed: a quarter of 5-8 year olds and 14% of 8-11 year olds surveyed think that bread comes from animals, while over a quarter (26%) of 5-8 year olds and 22% of 8-11 year olds think that cheese comes from plants. 

Nearly a fifth of primary school children said that potatoes come from animals, and almost a quarter of primary school children, plus more than one in ten (13%) of 8-11 year olds, indicated that pasta comes from animals.  One in every ten primary school children surveyed thinks that bacon comes from sheep, while 17% think that fish fingers come from chicken. Encouragingly, around a fifth of older children (11-16 year olds) want to know more about where their food comes from.

Ballam said: “Food origins, as the foundation of a good understanding of ingredients, cooking and healthy eating, is one of the key themes of Healthy Eating Week and our research shows why educating children in how foods are produced and arrive on their plates is important.”