Acceptance of fish hamburgers in school meals in the Southwest Region of Paraná, Brazil

Abstract The regular consumption of fish provides health gains for people, and its introduction in school meals is an important strategy to insert the habit of consuming this food by a population. Thus the objective of this study was to verify the acceptance of fish, presented in the form of hamburger, by children in municipal primary schools in the town of Pato Branco, Brazil, in which the school cooks had been trained to produce fish hamburgers. Acceptance was evaluated using a hedonic scale with 5 facial classifications (1 = disliked extremely to 5 = liked extremely). Students of both genders from 5 to 10 years of age (n = 142) were served the hamburgers for their midday meal, representing the protein portion of the meal. The results were analyzed by logistic regression. No effect of age or gender was observed between the children in the acceptance of the hamburgers, but the interaction between age and gender was significant. The cluster analysis was applied to distinguish this interaction using two-way joining to present the results, which showed the effect between specific age and gender situations. The acceptance index was 87% showing the potential for the consumption of this food by children.

摘要
定期食用鱼类对人体健康具有积极益处，将鱼类纳入学校供餐体系，亦是培养特定人群养成鱼类食用习惯的重要策略。本研究旨在评估巴西帕托布兰科（Pato Branco）市立小学学生对鱼肉汉堡的接受度，此前当地学校厨师已接受过鱼肉汉堡制作的专项培训。
本研究采用包含5个面部表情等级的快感评分量表（hedonic scale）评估接受度，其中1分代表“极不喜爱”，5分代表“极喜爱”。研究共纳入142名5至10岁的男女学生（n=142），将鱼肉汉堡作为午餐的蛋白质供餐组分供其食用。结果采用逻辑回归（logistic regression）进行分析，结果显示，学生的年龄与性别均未对鱼肉汉堡的接受度产生独立影响，但年龄与性别的交互作用具有统计学显著性。为解析该交互作用，本研究采用双向联结聚类分析（cluster analysis）对结果进行可视化呈现，明确了特定年龄与性别组合下的接受度差异。本次研究的接受度指数达87%，表明该鱼肉汉堡具备在儿童群体中推广应用的潜力。