Avoiding hedonic contrast to increase acceptance of healthy sustainable school meals

Abstract To promote sustainable eating in schools, new approaches for embracing plant-based (PB) meals are needed. Hedonic contrast (HC) describes how liking for one item is influenced by the recent experience of other items of different hedonic valence. Despite its established impact on liking, HC’s effect on intake, particularly in repeated exposure experiments, is limited. Moreover, its effect on food-related emotions remains largely unexplored. Hence, this study investigated how HC influences liking, emotions and intake of an innovative co-created PB dish, served as part of a course meal, at school in a repeated exposure study. Two groups of students (N (HC) =71, mean age=14.5 and N (control) =57, mean age=15.3) were served the same neutrally liked main PB dish (pumpkin stuffed lentils balls (LPA)) after a starter dish (rice with vegetables) which was altered in taste through seasoning and cooking methods to be more (HC) or less (control) tasty. The exposure was repeated once/week for 5 consecutive weeks. Liking and emotional responses for the dishes were recorded through a questionnaire and food consumption by weighting plate waste. HC led to lower liking (p = 0.037) and lower positive emotions (cheerful, pleasure) with high arousal (surprise) for LPA, while increasing negative valence emotions (disappointed). Moreover, LPA consumption was significantly lower in the HC group vs the control (45% vs 60% respectively, p = 0.040), resulting in lower protein intake in the HC group (p = 0.029). The effects of HC remained stable with time. This study, for the first time, reveals a sustained rise in food-related positive high arousal emotions, when foods are presented following less liked food. Since new foods evoking positive valence and high arousal emotions have higher chances to be appreciated than foods evoking positive valence and low arousal emotions, this work opens new perspectives on how to propose new, healthier and more sustainable PB dishes in school canteens. Key messages • Avoiding negative contrast between school meals is a promising strategy to ensure higher liking, intake and increased positive emotions over repeated exposure for innovative plant-based dishes. • To enhance adolescent’s acceptance and uptake of new plant-based dishes in school canteens, it is better to serve them after less tasty options.