Blending dark green vegetables with fruits in commercially available infant foods makes them taste like fruit.

Vegetables are an important but under consumed part of a healthy diet. There is growing interest in promoting vegetable acceptance and consumption among infants to help establish life-long healthy eating patterns. A recent survey of commercial baby food products in the United States by Moding and colleagues revealed a lack of variety in the types of vegetables offered.

Increasing flavor variety with herbs and spices improves relative vegetable intake in children who are propylthiouracil (PROP) tasters relative to nontasters.

American children do not meet the recommended daily servings of vegetables, and previous research suggests children who can taste the bitterness of 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP) are more likely to have low vegetable intake. This study tested the hypothesis that adding multiple herb and spice blends to vegetables to increase flavor variety within a meal would increase vegetable intake in 3-5year-old children. Children attended two laboratory visits and consumed two test meals of common foods: macaroni and cheese, applesauce, carrots, milk, and water.