Functional Foods' Consumption in Children and Parents: A Literature Review

Among young children, parents are a main factor in children's preferences for food served as they are responsible for purchasing and providing functional foods (FFs) and they are role models for them. This review study was conducted according to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines and aimed at reviewing the recent data about the consumption of FFs in families as part of a balanced diet. The literature search was conducted via the online academic search engines PubMed, ResearchGate and Google Scholar. The search process was restricted to research papers published in English in reviewed journals from 2012 to 2023. Thirty-six articles were ultimately included in the present review. The findings indicated a relationship between several sociodemographic factors and a higher likelihood of purchasing FFs for children. Higher household annual income, education levels and purchase frequencies among females are all positively correlated with higher levels of nutritional knowledge and confidence in the validity of scientific research on FFs. Also, parents' sociodemographic factors affect the children's fruit/vegetable consumption. This study concludes that parents are role models for their children's eating behavior and eating habits.