Taste in food education: a critical review essay

In this article, we focus on how taste is used in contemporary food education. By critically discussing a series of academic studies that design and evaluate taste education programs for children, we argue that most of the literature on taste education demonstrates a reductive understanding of taste and is essentially mistrustful of children’s taste rather than developing children’s ability to make critical food choices. Taste is seen as a barrier to the adoption of “correct” eating habits and is not recognized as an important sense, a source of pleasure, or a central way of sensually understanding and approaching the world. In other words, taste education becomes a tool to push children toward “hegemonic nutrition.