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Adequate vegetable consumption is fundamental to a healthy, balanced diet; however, global compliance with recommendations to increase consumption is poor. There is a growing interest in the sustainability of current dietary patterns in light of expected climate change and an expanding global population where part of the response is increasing vegetable intake. Two international projects, VeggiEAT and Veg+, explored the determinants of vegetable liking and consumption in different age groups and countries and the effect of a nudging strategy on vegetable consumption in an out-of-home setting. The projects found that the importance given by consumers to natural or healthy ingredients, social norms, female gender and positive attitudes towards nudging all influenced vegetable consumption. Some sensory factors, such as bitterness and sourness, had a negative loading, while others, such as sweetness, had a positive effect on liking for vegetables. ‘Dish of the day’, as a nudging strategy in a workplace canteen setting, increased vegetable dish selection for some of the sample (adolescent females) but not for males or older people. Globally, there is a strong need to promote the consumption of vegetables as a public health issue but also to improve their availability and uptake, especially within out-of-home foodservice.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries have implemented various strategies to reduce and slow the spread of the disease in the general population. For countries that have implemented restrictions on its population in a step-wise manner, monitoring of COVID-19 prevalence is of importance to guide decision on when to impose new, or when to abolish old, restrictions. We are here determining whether measures of odor intensity in a large sample can serve as one such measure. Online measures of how intense common household odors are perceived and symptoms of COVID-19 were collected from 2440 Swedes. Average odor intensity ratings were then compared to predicted COVID-19 population prevalence over time in the Swedish population and were found to closely track each other (r=-0.83). Moreover, we found that there was a large difference in rated intensity between individuals with and without COVID-19 symptoms and number of symptoms was related to odor intensity ratings. Finally, we found that individuals progressing from reporting no symptoms to subsequently reporting COVID-19 symptoms demonstrated a large drop in olfactory performance. These data suggest that measures of odor intensity, if obtained in a large and representative sample, can be used as an indicator of COVID-19 disease in the general population. Importantly, this simple measure could easily be implemented in countries without widespread access to COVID-19 testing or implemented as a fast early response before wide-spread testing can be facilitated.

Adequate vegetable consumption is fundamental to a healthy, balanced diet; however, global compliance with recommendations to increase consumption is poor. There is a growing interest in the sustainability of current dietary patterns in light of expected climate change and an expanding global population where part of the response is increasing vegetable intake. Two international projects, VeggiEAT and Veg+, explored the determinants of vegetable liking and consumption in different age groups and countries and the effect of a nudging strategy on vegetable consumption in an out-of-home setting. The projects found that the importance given by consumers to natural or healthy ingredients, social norms, female gender and positive attitudes towards nudging all influenced vegetable consumption. Some sensory factors, such as bitterness and sourness, had a negative loading, while others, such as sweetness, had a positive effect on liking for vegetables. ‘Dish of the day’, as a nudging strategy in a workplace canteen setting, increased vegetable dish selection for some of the sample (adolescent females) but not for males or older people. Globally, there is a strong need to promote the consumption of vegetables as a public health issue but also to improve their availability and uptake, especially within out-of-home foodservice.

Vegetable consumption in adolescents is reported to be low, at least in part, due to the unappealing sensory properties of vegetables, such as bitter tastes. However, not all vegetables have unappealing sensory properties, and strategies to improve vegetable consumption may benefit from wider consideration. This work aimed to understand the individual characteristics in adolescents from four European countries associated with the regular consumption and liking of vegetables with more appealing and less appealing sensory properties. Adolescents from Denmark (N = 178), the UK (N = 155), France (N = 206) and Italy (N = 197) completed self-report questionnaires to assess all variables. We found higher self-reported consumption and liking of vegetables with more appealing than less appealing sensory properties. Regular consumption of both types of vegetable was associated with healthier eating habits and a higher liking for each vegetable type. Liking for vegetables with more appealing sensory properties was higher in individuals with lower food neophobia, healthier eating habits, higher interest in consuming foods for sensory reasons and higher liking for vegetables with less appealing properties. Liking for vegetables with less appealing sensory properties was higher in individuals with lower food neophobia, higher concern for the consumption of natural foods, and higher liking for vegetables with more appealing properties. Some gender and country-specific differences were also found. Our findings suggest that strategies to increase vegetable consumption in adolescents should focus on increasing healthy eating in general, increasing vegetable liking, and may benefit from reducing food neophobia and enhancing the positive sensory and natural aspects of vegetables.