Vegetable acceptance: a bittersweet story : Role of taste in acceptance of vegetables

Vegetable consumption is below recommended intakes in many countries, while the consumption of an adequate amount of vegetables is essential for health. Taste, especially bitter taste, is often suggested as the main cause of low vegetable acceptance. In her dissertation, Vera van Stokkom showed that the intensity of sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness and umami of commonly consumed vegetables is low and that taste plays only a minor role in the identification of vegetables. Enhancing sweetness increased acceptance in both children and adults and combining vegetables compared to individual vegetables can increase acceptance as well. However, vegetable acceptance was still not very high. Mainly sweetness and bitterness were involved in vegetable acceptance, thus taste is important even though intensities are low. The results highlight the difficulty of increasing acceptance of vegetables.