engleski

Sensory acceptability of strawberry and chocolate cornflakes by normal and overweight elderly people

Food choice is influenced by many interrelated factors, among others aging and obesity status. People&#8217; s food preferences vary during aging. In particular, elderly people show a decrease in pleasantness associated with food intake as a result of both physiological and psychological factors. They are very specific in their flavour and textural requirements and therefore more demanding. It has also been theorized that overweight is related to unhealthy (i.e. energy-dense food) food preferences. Therefore the aim of this work was to examine sensory acceptability of breakfast cereals in different weight categories of elderly people and to determine whether crispy and mashed texture had influence on these preferences. A 7-point verbal hedonic scale was used to determine the level of acceptance for all samples. Research involved 218 (146 females and 72 males) institutionalized elderly people, age 55 to 93 (mean age 75.7). The mean hedonic score for all participants was 4.92 and 4.84 for mashed, and 4.05 and 3.73 for crispy strawberry and chocolate cornflakes, respectively. Pearson&#8217; s correlation showed that obesity status had influence on choice ; overweight and obese participants had better preference towards all provided cornflakes. Furthermore, we affirmed the hypothesis that food texture has influence on elderly people preferences. They significantly prefer mashed texture (p<0.001 for both strawberry and chocolate cornflakes). In conclusion, this research emphasised the thesis that overweight and obese elderly people have an enhanced liking for cornflakes regardless of taste and texture.

cornflakes; overweight status; sensory acceptability; elderly people

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