Vanilla and starch to cut sugar in children's milk desserts
What it found
Adding more vanilla and starch helped keep children's liking high when sugar was cut by about 40% in milk desserts.
The study tested this in 112 children aged 8 to 12.
What they found
Studies in people
Liking with less sugar
On average, children liked the desserts with 7% added sugar just as much as the one with 12%. Average scores were close to 7 on a 9-point scale for all samples.
More vanilla raised liking
When looking only at the lower-sugar desserts, adding more vanilla increased how much children liked them. Over 80% of the children gave higher liking scores when both vanilla and starch were increased.
Three groups of children
Children split into three groups based on what they liked. One small group actually disliked the full-sugar dessert most. Another large group preferred the version with extra vanilla and starch over the other low-sugar ones.
Sensory changes were small
Children described the desserts using words like sweet, creamy and vanilla flavor. The low-sugar dessert with extra vanilla and starch did not differ from the full-sugar control in any of these descriptions.
Other findings
How the desserts were made
The control dessert had 12% added sugar. The reduced versions had 7% added sugar, which is a 41.6% drop in added sugar. Vanilla was set at either 0.4% or 0.6%, and starch at 4.3% or 4.7%.
What the authors conclude
- They say it is possible to cut added sugar in vanilla milk desserts without largely changing how much children enjoy them.
- They found that using more vanilla and changing the texture helped hide the sensory differences caused by having less sugar.
- They advise using this approach as part of slow, step-by-step programs to lower sugar in children's foods over time.
How it was done
Children eat a lot of sugary foods, which is linked to childhood obesity. The authors wanted to see if changing the smell and texture of a food could make up for less sugar without losing appeal.
The researchers made five vanilla milk desserts: one with 12% added sugar and four with 7% added sugar. They changed the amounts of vanilla (0.4% or 0.6%) and starch (4.3% or 4.7%) in the lower-sugar versions. A total of 112 children aged 8 to 12 tasted them and rated how much they liked each one over 15 to 20 minutes.
What it can’t tell you
- This study only looked at one type of food, so the results might not apply to other products children eat.
- The researchers grouped children into clusters, but some of those groups were very small, so the patterns need checking in larger studies.
- The study measured immediate reactions during a short tasting session, not whether children would keep choosing these desserts over weeks or months.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
- Authors work at
- Instituto Polo Tecnológico de Pando, Uruguay
The paper
- Title
- Cross-modal interactions as a strategy for sugar reduction in products targeted at children: Case study with vanilla milk desserts
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Velázquez AL, Vidal L, Varela P, Ares G (2020). Cross-modal interactions as a strategy for sugar reduction in products targeted at children: Case study with vanilla milk desserts. Food research international (Ottawa, Ont.). doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2019.108920Free full textPubMed 32156373DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error