Familial aggregation and socio-demographic correlates of taste preferences in European children

BACKGROUND: Studies on aggregation of taste preferences among children and their siblings as well as their parents are scarce. We investigated the familial aggregation of taste preferences as well as the effect of sex, age, country of residence and education on variation in taste preferences in the pan- European I.Family cohort. METHOD: Thirteen thousand one hundred sixty-five participants from 7 European countries, comprising 2,230 boys <12 years, 2,110 girls <12 years, 1,682 boys ≥12 years, 1,744 girls ≥12 years and 5,388 parents, completed a Food and Beverage Preference Questionnaire containing 63 food items representing the taste modalities sweet, bitter, salty and fatty. We identified food items that represent the different taste qualities using factor analysis. On the basis of preference ratings for these food and drink items, a preference score for each taste was calculated for children and parents individually. Sibling and parent-child correlations for taste preference scores were calculated. The proportion of variance in children’s preference scores that could be explained by their parents’ preference scores and potential correlates including sex, age and parental educational was explored. RESULTS: Mean taste preferences for sweet, salty and fatty decreased and for bitter increased with age. Taste preference scores correlated stronger between siblings than between children and parents. Children’s salty preference scores could be better explained by country than by family members. Children’s fatty preference scores could be better explained by family members than by country. Age explained 17% of the variance in sweet and 16% of the variance in fatty taste preference. Sex and education were not associated with taste preference scores. CONCLUSION: Taste preferences are correlated between siblings. Country could explain part of the variance of salty preference scores in children which points to a cultural influence on salt preference. Further, age also explained a relevant proportion of variance in sweet and fatty preference scores. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s40795-017-0206-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.