School meal acceptance depends on the dish, student, and context

•Students (n = 127, age 8–15 years) rated 13 school meals which were also described by a lab panel.•Well-liked meals had recognizable appearance, odor, and flavor, and they were bright and colorful.•Positive attitudes to school meal, hunger, and appropriate queuing increased the acceptance.•Food neophobia and being a 6th or 8th grader decreased the acceptance.•By early teenage, students had a negative attitude to school meals.

Students (n = 127) from grades 3, 6, and 8 (8–15-year-old) evaluated 13 school meals with special attention to main dishes. Hedonic ratings (1 = really bad, 7 = really good) of 1109 meals, perceived hunger prior to eating, and aspects of the eating context were rated. Attitudes to school meals and food neophobia were measured. Considerable differences were observed in responses to main dishes, soups being better accepted than casseroles or dishes served with starches. A semi-trained laboratory panel (n = 17) characterized the best liked main dishes as being recognizable by appearance, odor and flavor, and bright and colorful, while the least liked dishes were described as having fatty mouth feel and cheesy odor and flavor. Hedonic ratings of main dishes were highly correlated with overall meal ratings. The 3rd graders rated the main dishes higher than 6th and 8th graders, who perceived them as too low in spiciness and not hot enough when served. Typically, 3rd grade boys rated the meals most positively and 6th grade boys most negatively. Attitudes to school meals were more positive in 3rd graders than in higher-grade students. In regression analysis explaining 29.7% of variation, hedonic ratings of the meals were positively predicted by attitudes to school food, perceived hunger, and appropriate queuing in the canteen, and negatively predicted by food neophobia and being a 6th or 8th grader. In conclusion, sensory characteristics of main dishes greatly affect the popularity of school meals; and means to impact the negative attitude to school food in teenage would be of great use.