Le goûter résiste à la nutritionnalisation

What is the status of the “goûter” in French children's eating habits? A qualitative survey, conducted in 2012, through interviews with families (n = 35) and focus groups with children (n = 19) provided data on representations and practices related to this moment of consumption. This study shows that this is not an uncontrolled and anarchic food intake, but rather a “small meal”, socially regulated, framed by norms in terms of content and schedules. In addition, if adults are prescribers of this food intake perceived as essential to nourish and encouraged for several years by the nutritionists themselves, the child “has the control” on its composition. Indeed, face to nutritional injunctions to consume fruits and dairy products, the “goûter” remains, in the practices, a break time, resolutely associated with the universes of sweetness, pleasure of eating and sharing and the world of childhood.