Rethinking fussiness in commercial food contexts

Abstract So-called ‘fussy’ or ‘picky’ eating has been construed as a problem of parenting feeding practices and children’s defiant eating behaviours. However, this ‘fussiness’ about food unfolds in a food environment rife with misleading marketing messages, conflicting information, and the widespread availability of ultra-processed food (UPF). Where fussiness leads to dietary patterns high in UPF, it can have significant implications for a child’s life-long health. These broader intersections of commercial forces, biology, developmental neurology, and family food environments are unclear. This paper extends recent work on the commercial determinants of health by reframing food fussiness as a structural phenomenon shaped by commercial influences, rather than solely as an individual trait. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 34 parents of children aged 1–18 years old, the paper examines a rising form of food fussiness that follows a different timeline to the expected ∼3-year old peak—one which develops in early school years and presents as a persistent preference for UPF. We find that parents see themselves as pitted against a powerful food industry that directly engineers and markets food commodities that shape children’s tastes, which in turn structures and delimits what foods children expect and desire. We argue that the commercial food environment is an overlooked influence on food fussiness, and that systems-level interventions are required to address it.