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Purpose: It is assumed that sensory taste perception shapes food choices and impacts dietary intake. However, this has rarely been studied in free living subjects of different age-groups with standardised methods. The present study investigated the association of the ability to rank sweet and fat taste intensities with consumption frequency of sweet and fatty foods in children, adolescents and adults from eight European countries., Methods: In total, 461 children, 421 adolescents and 612 adults from the IDEFICS/I.Family cohort participated in sensory sweet and fat intensity rating tests. Sweet and fatty food consumption frequencies were assessed using a food frequency questionnaire. The association between the ability to rank sweet and fat intensity with sweet and fatty food consumption frequencies was estimated using linear mixed regression models adjusting for weight status, country, sex, age and family affiliation., Results: Across all age groups, the largest proportion of participants had medium sweet and fat taste intensity ranking abilities. The next largest proportion had low sweet and fat taste intensity rating abilities, while the smallest proportion had high intensity rating abilities to sweet and fat taste. A negative association of sweet and fat taste intensity ranking ability with sweet and fatty food consumption frequencies was found for children. In adolescents, the association was positive. In adults, there was no association., Conclusion: It seems that the association of taste intensity ratings with food consumption frequencies during adolescence differs from the associations in children and adults. This could be due to hormonal changes during puberty, growth and maturation. Thus, further research focussing on maturation processes in association with taste perception during adolescence may be required., Competing Interests: Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.  Ethics approval and consent to participate : Each study centre obtained ethical approval from the local institutional review board; Belgium: Ethics Committee of the Gent University Hospital, 15/10/2007, ref: No. EC UZG 2007/243 and 19/02/2013, No. B670201316342, Cyprus: Cyprus National Bioethics Committee, 12/07/2007, ref: No. EEBK/EM/2007/16 and 21/Feb/2013, No. EEBK/ETI/2012/33, Estonia: Tallinn Medical Research Ethics Committee (TMREC), 14/06/2007, ref: No. 1093 and 17/January 2013, No. 128, Germany: Ethic Commission of the University of Bremen, 16/01/2007 and 11/12/2012, Hungary: Medical Research Council, 21/Jun/2007, ref: 22-156/2007-1018EKU and 18/12/2012, 4536/2013/EKU, Italy: Ethics Committee of the Local Health Authority (ASL) in Avellino, 19/06/2007, ref: No. 2/CE and 18/Sep/2012, No. 12/12, Spain: Ethics Committee for Clinical Research of Aragon (CEICA), 20/06/2007, ref:No. PI07/13 and 13/Feb/2013, No. PI13/0012, Sweden: Regional Ethics Research Board in Gothenburg, 30/07/2007, ref: No. 264-07 and 10/Jan/2013, No. 927-12. The ISRCTN reference is: ISRCTN62310987. Besides the oral information given, all participants above 12 years gave a written consent and parents gave a written consent on behalf of their children below 12 years in addition to the oral consent of their children., (© 2024. The Author(s).)