INCREASING WILLINGNESS TO TASTE NOVEL FOODS - EFFECTS OF NUTRITION AND TASTE INFORMATION

This study was designed to examine the effects of various kinds of inf ormation on willingness to ingest novel foods in individuals varying i n the extent to which they reported that nutritional concerns affected their food choices. Male and female volunteers ranging in age from 10 to 79 (N=401), saw six familiar and six novel foods, and received no information, taste likability information, general nutrition informati on, or specific nutrition information about the whole set of foods. Th ey rated their willingness to taste each food, with the clear implicat ion that their willingness ratings would determine which foods they wo uld taste later in the study. On a separate questionnaire, they also r ated the factors influencing their food everyday choices, and these ra tings were used to compute an ''importance of nutrition'' score for ea ch individual. Results indicated that older subjects were generally mo re willing to try novel foods than younger ones, that general nutritio n information was effective for high school and college students, and that specific nutrition information was influential for young adults. It was also found that general nutrition information increased willing ness to taste novel food in subjects for whom nutrition is important a nd decreased such willingness in subjects for whom nutrition is not im portant. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.