# Functional Foods' Consumption in Children and Parents: A Literature Review
## 3 Results
### Studies with Children/Parents and Fruit/Vegetable Consumption  
Due to the fact that fruits and vegetables (F&V or F/V) are natural FFs, we decided to also include in our review surveys with children and parents who consume them. A total of 30 studies were selected that described children's and parents' F/V consumption, which were published between 2013 and 2023 (Table 3). Three studies were conducted in Greece, six in the USA, two in Canada, one in Italy, one in Australia, seven at the same time in different European countries, one in Thailand, one in Finland, two in Poland, one in Mexico, one in Nepal, two in The Netherlands and two in Portugal. Most of the studies targeted parents and how their F/V consumption was associated with their children's F/V consumption. Some of the studies focused on how parents' income, education and ethnicity affected their children's F&V consumption, while some other researchers checked the children's frequency of F&V intake. Findings showed that most parents and children were not consuming the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables [29; 30; 31; 32; 33; 34; 35; 36; 37]. On the other hand, in [PERSON]'s and [PERSON]'s studies, it appeared that most children, especially the younger age groups, met WHO guidelines for the daily amount of fruit. However, the same was not found for vegetable consumption [38; 39]. In addition, there was a higher likelihood that children with similar positive health status markers would have parents with higher Healthy Eating Index scores or who met daily F&V recommendations [31; 40; 41; 42; 43; 44; 45; 46; 47]. Furthermore, parents with positive health status indicators can teach their children better cooking and food skills. Food skills are the skills that are needed for how to read labels, plan meals, select nutritious foods and prepare healthy meals. The above is confirmed by [PERSON]'s research, which found that adolescents who had better cooking and food skills also had healthier eating habits and consumed more F&V [48]. Last but not least, our findings imply that the socioeconomic status (education, work experience and income) of parents is consistently associated with the nutritional status and F/V consumption of children. In children with low-educated parents compared to their peers, those with higher education levels had a greater daily consumption rate of F&V. Also, children of parents with a high family income had higher odds of consuming more F&V [37; 43; 49; 50; 51; 52; 53; 54; 55]. Nevertheless, in [PERSON]'s and [PERSON]'s research, there was nothing similar to the abovementioned studies, as they found that parents' income and education were not significantly associated with their children's F&V consumption [56; 57]. \begin{table}
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**Sources** & **Year** & **Country** & **Method** & **Sample Size** & **Main Findings** \\ \hline \multirow{6}{*}{[PERSON] [29]} & \multirow{6}{*}{2013} & \multirow{6}{*}{Italy} & Cross-sectional study & \multirow{6}{*}{3291 students (11-, 13- and 15-years-old)} & \multirow{6}{*}{-} & \multirow{6}{*}{There was not any correlation between irregular breakfast intake and low frequency of F&F\&V consumption.} \\  & & & Cross-sectional study & & (11-, 13- and 15-years-old) & & There was a significant correlation between infrequent snacking and infrequent fruit eating, but not between infrequent vegetable consumption. \\ \hline \multirow{6}{*}{[PERSON] [30]} & \multirow{6}{*}{2013} & 10 countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Germany, Iceland, Finland, Slovenia, Portugal, Norway Sweden and The Netherlands & \multirow{6}{*}{8158 children} & \multirow{6}{*}{-} & \multirow{6}{*}{On average, 53.3\% of the children mentioned not eating fruit daily and 44.9\% mentioned eating vegetables less than once daily. Children did not reach the WHO recommendation for F&V intake, with only 23.5\% of the whole sample meeting the recommendations.}