Studies on the Preference of Foods : part3 : Effects of Age and Area Characteristics on Food Preference

The authors have made investigation into about five thousands men and women aged above twelve all over Japan in 1978, 1980 and 1982 in order to find structures of food preference. The investigation was made by self-writing method to evaluate individual preference on about one hundred fifty kinds of dishes and foods, and thirty four kinds of strength of taste and type of textures. For preference on dishes and food, five-point scale was adopted. On the contrary, paired choice was adopted for strength of taste and type of texture. Two papers in terms of this study were already published. Main results of this paper are as follows. (1) The largest factor which affects food preference is age. And age characteristics have been analyzed by the common preference factors found in prior studies. Take teenagers for an example, their characteristics are dislike of "Japanese foods" and like of "Western and heavy foods". (2) Area characteristics have been analyzed by the common preference factors. Take Kanto area for an example, its characteristics are "Western and spicy tastes". (3) To find how food preference changes according to age, likes and dislikes of the common preference factors and of the forty-two foods composed of those factors were studied. For example, the foods of "Japanese" factor become prefered as age goes up, while the food of "Western" factor have the opposite tendency. The terning point of preference on the foods of "Japanese" factor is the thirties and that of "Western" factor is the forties. (4) The similarity among the area characteristics: of the food preference seen in the eight areas in Japan were found out. The food preference of Tohoku area is similar to that of Hokkaido, and so is Hokuriku to Tokai.