Something fishy is cooking: a survey of 11- to 13-year-old Danish children’s self-evaluated food neophilia, food behaviour, knowledge, and skills in relation to fish

Danish children aged 10 to 17 consume only one-third of the officially recommended amount of fish. Little is known about Danish children’s perception of fish, their knowledge and skills in relation to preparing and cooking fish nor their status of food neophilia, or the relationship between these areas. This study seeks to address this lack of knowledge.
The objective of this survey is to investigate 11- to 13-year-old Danes’ self-evaluated liking of cooking, fish intake, liking of fish, knowledge and skills in relation to fish and cooking, and food neophilia. Furthermore, the aim is to explore possible effects of gender and geographical area.
This cross-sectional survey targets 11- to 13-year-old children in Denmark. 669 children from the eastern part of Denmark were recruited through the school subject Food Knowledge.
Liking of cooking was high, a general liking for fish was identified, but consumption was low, with 42% of respondents not having eaten fish in the past week. Self-evaluated knowledge of fish and skills related to fish and cooking were generally low. Effects of gender and area were observed: boys had a tendency to rate themselves higher in knowledge and skills than girls, and children from the Greater Copenhagen area liked to cook more and had a more positive fish behaviour than children from provincial Zealand. Furthermore, knowledge and skills related to fish and cooking were strongly correlated, and liking to cook was not associated with skills in food and cooking but rather with food neophilia.