Did students at a rural high school like vegetables more when herbs and spices were added?

Details

Researchers developed vegetable-specific seasoning blends after surveying students, parents and cafeteria staff about familiarity with herbs and spices and barriers to eating vegetables. Students then evaluated 8 plain recipes and 8 seasoned versions, with 96–110 students participating in the comparisons. They rated how much they liked each recipe and chose which version they preferred.

Liking ratings were higher for seasoned broccoli, vegetable dip, black beans and corn, and cauliflower. Students also preferred the seasoned versions of these recipes, as well as corn and peas and green beans. Preference and liking were separate measures: choosing a seasoned version did not always come with a clearly higher liking rating.

The findings support seasoning as a way to make some school vegetable recipes more appealing in this setting, not a claim that every recipe improved. The study was limited to a rural school and did not establish whether serving the recipes at lunch would increase vegetable intake; the authors left that question for future research.