We investigated factors in taste, such as “home”, “housing” and “district environment”. As indicators we used desire for food, frequency of food intake, and food preference; and surveyed typical egg dishes, viz., raw egg, boiled egg, fried egg, tamagoyaki, chawanmushi, pudding.
The subjects were children aged 5 and 6 years.
1. Children like “egg dishes” and want to eat them frequently. Correlations between these two factors are high. The frequency of eating “fried egg” is high and “chawanmushi” low.
2. High positive correlations of food preferences were observed between children and parents.
Children of working mothers like “raw egg”, children of mothers who are not working like “pudding”. A high degree of desire for the foods and a high frequency of intake were observed in both cases.
In compound families, high correlations of preferences were observed between parents and children. Concerning “raw egg” in compound families and “pudding” in nuclear families, high correlations of intake frequency and degree of desire were observed.
The larger the numbers of siblings, it was noted, the higher the preference for egg dishes.
3. Concerning “housing” and “district environment, ” some differences were observed in the intensity of desire for food and frequency of intake, depending on the type of cooking.