WP 1 - Identification of critical periods and critical factors in the development of food habits

Objectives

• To review existing assessment tools for both describing parental feeding practices in infancy and for identifying food habits/preferences through a review of experimental and epidemiologic data in humans.
• To develop new tools for both describing parental feeding practices in infancy and for assessing food habits and preferences in young children to be used in large scale studies.
• To identify the critical periods in the development of food habits/preferences in infancy and early childhood and to produce recommendations for future research aiming at the identification of critical periods of food habits and preferences in young children

Description of work and role of participants

• Task 1.1: To operationalise core concepts in food habit formation
• Task T1.2: Review of current methodologies
• Task T1.3: Development of new tools or adaptation of existing tools to better identify critical periods
• Task T1.4: Identification of the critical periods/factors in the development of food habits and preferences: longitudinal analysis

Deliverables

• D4: Identified core concepts in food habit formation and summary of existing and gap of tools to assess food habits/preferences development in humans. M9
• D5: Review article. The summary of existing and gap of tools to assess food habits/preferences development in humans will be presented in a review article. M18
• D14: New or adapted tools to assess parental feeding practices and food habits/preferences, at different periods in large scale studies. M36
• D16: Analysis of the critical periods and critical factors in the development of food habits and preferences from birth to five years old and recommendation for future research. M42
• D23: Likely impact of identified food habits on growth and development of obesity. M48