Play with your food and cook it! Tactile play with fish as a way of promoting acceptance of fish in 11 to 13 year old children in a school setting – a qualitative study

TY - JOUR

T1 - Play with your food and cook it!

T2 - Tactile play with fish as a way of promoting acceptance of fish in 11 to 13 year old children in a school setting – a qualitative study

AU - Højer, Rikke

AU - Wistoft, Karen

AU - Frøst, Michael Bom

N1 - Part of Rikke Højer Nielsens Ph.D dissertation

PY - 2020/10

Y1 - 2020/10

N2 - Despite a tradition of consuming fish in Denmark and despite the health benefits of eating fish, Danish children consume only one-third of the officially recommended amount of fish. The objective of this study was to explore an experiential and sensory-based exercise in a school setting with focus on tactile play and cooking as a way of promoting 11-to 13-year-old children’s acceptance of fish. The design was a qualitative exploratory multiple-case design using participant observation in a school setting. Six classes were recruited from the Eastern part of Denmark (n = 132). Based on an exercise with cooking fish and gyotaku (fish print), four meta-themes were identified by applying applied thematic analysis: rejection, acceptance, craftsmanship, and interaction. Rejection and acceptance appeared along a rejection–acceptance continuum related to how the fish was categorised (animal, non-animal, food) in different phases of the experiment. Rejection was promoted by mucus, smell, animalness, and texture, whereas helping each other, tactile play, and craftsmanship promoted acceptance. In conclusion, this study found that tactile play combined with cooking could be a way of promoting acceptance of fish. The findings also support a school setting as a potential gateway in promoting healthy food behaviour.

AB - Despite a tradition of consuming fish in Denmark and despite the health benefits of eating fish, Danish children consume only one-third of the officially recommended amount of fish. The objective of this study was to explore an experiential and sensory-based exercise in a school setting with focus on tactile play and cooking as a way of promoting 11-to 13-year-old children’s acceptance of fish. The design was a qualitative exploratory multiple-case design using participant observation in a school setting. Six classes were recruited from the Eastern part of Denmark (n = 132). Based on an exercise with cooking fish and gyotaku (fish print), four meta-themes were identified by applying applied thematic analysis: rejection, acceptance, craftsmanship, and interaction. Rejection and acceptance appeared along a rejection–acceptance continuum related to how the fish was categorised (animal, non-animal, food) in different phases of the experiment. Rejection was promoted by mucus, smell, animalness, and texture, whereas helping each other, tactile play, and craftsmanship promoted acceptance. In conclusion, this study found that tactile play combined with cooking could be a way of promoting acceptance of fish. The findings also support a school setting as a potential gateway in promoting healthy food behaviour.

KW - Acceptance of fish

KW - Children

KW - Experimental learning

KW - Family and consumer sciences

KW - Food acceptance

KW - Grundskole

KW - Læring

KW - Madkundskab

KW - Tactile play

KW - Undervisning

KW - Cooking

KW - Experiential learning

KW - Fish

KW - Food acceptance

KW - Students

KW - Tactile play

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092738066&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/nu12103180

DO - 10.3390/nu12103180

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 33080898

SN - 2072-6643

VL - 12

SP - 1

EP - 23

JO - Nutrients

JF - Nutrients

IS - 10

M1 - 3180

ER -