First baby ‘thrill-o-meter’

a world’s first!

The world’s first ‘baby thrill-o-meter’ has been unveiled to capture and measure the thrill experienced by little ones when they try new and different foods. Created by baby and toddler food experts Ella’s Kitchen, in partnership with Thrill Laboratory, the study provides a unique insight into babies’ physiological reactions when they try a variety of different fruits, vegetables and spices.

The Thrill-O-Meter is part of an innovative integrated campaign to help Ella’s Kitchen’s further their understanding of tiny taste buds and highlight the exciting tastes in Ella’s Kitchen products - from a pinch of cinnamon in seriously comforting Cottage Pie to Mangoes, Pears + Papayas. You can see exactly how the babies reacted – and just how excited they were – when they tried the different fruits, vegetables and spices in an exclusive video from Ella’s Kitchen.

The activity is supported by a re-design of the Ella’s Kitchen homepage and digital advertising on key parenting websites featuring video content of babies trying the different foods and calling for parents to join in the BIG TASTE TEST to encourage all little ones to try new tastes.

The bespoke thrill-o-meter measures babies’ Galvanic Skin Responses to different foods and revealed mango and cinnamon as the ingredients that caused the most excitement amongst little ones, closely followed by lemon and coconut.

The results from the thrill-o-meter also revealed a list of the top 10 most exciting tastes for babies, including red pepper and papaya. The results were calculated by analysing increased Galvanic Skin Response from certain foods, combined with facial expression and body language analysis from parents to determine how positive the response was.

Top 10 most exciting tastes for babies:

1. Mango

2. Cinnamon

3. Lemon

4. Coconut

5. Banana

6. Papaya

7. Red pepper

8. Apricot

9. Sweet potato

10. Carrot

When babies become excited in response to a food, or the anticipation of a food, their bodies and minds get ready for action. Their hearts beat faster, their eyes open wide, and their breathing quickens.

One physiological effect of excitement and sensorial engagement that can’t be seen by parents is the micro-fluctuations in sweat levels, which the thrill-o-meter closely monitored through Galvanic Skin Response. A relative rise in Galvanic Skin Response, together with positive facial analysis from parents, expressed just how excited the baby was when tasting the food.

Brendan Walker, Thrill Laboratory comments: “Food can be really exciting for babies – whether it’s a first taste of cinnamon, juicy mango or exotic coconut. Different foods can stimulate different physiological responses and this innovative study is designed to reveal just how thrilling different foods are for babies and to help Ella’s Kitchen continue to explore and understand babies’ taste buds, both scientifically and creatively.”

Paul Lindley, Ella’s Kitchen founder and Ella’s Dad comments: “To see little ones’ faces light up when they try a food that really excites them is fantastic and we create all of our foods with babies’ taste buds in mind. From the pinch of spicy cinnamon in seriously comforting Cottage Pie, to Zingy Lamb Cous Cous bursting with exotic mangoes, at Ella’s Kitchen we understand just how important it is to thrill babies with exciting tastes at each and every meal, to ensure they develop healthy eating habits that last a lifetime and grow up to be good little eaters.”