Birds Eye and Cornell Researcher Brian Wansink, PhD, Team Up on Tips to Help Kids Discover the Wonder of Vegetables™

MOUNTAIN LAKES, N.J., Nov. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- At a time of year when food and flavor take center stage, Birds Eye®, a portfolio brand of Pinnacle Foods Group, wants to help make it easy and fun for families to add more veggies to the dinner table.  To help inspire and enable families to discover the wonder of vegetables, Birds Eye and Brian Wansink, PhD, teamed up to share top tips for kids to eat and enjoy their vegetables.

Wansink, renowned food psychologist and director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University, conducted kid-focused research that found meals with vegetables are rated as more complete, tastier and nutritious than meals without vegetables.  And, not only is it rated as a better meal, vegetables help make mom a hero(1). According to Wansink, inspiring kids to love their vegetables is not only simple and fun – but delicious as well. He offers these veggie-powered tips:

• Model Your Veggies: If you eat your veggies then your kids will eat theirs too. Research suggests the chances a child eats recommended amounts of healthy foods double if their parents do.
• Stock the Freezer: Try fresh vegetables in frozen form to get your kids' favorite vegetables all year round. Kids love carrots, corn and peppers – all easy-to-prep options to keep in your "frozen pantry."  
• Give Kids A Choice: Just giving kids a voice in selecting from options could mean more veggies. Kids may prefer carrots to celery (they chose carrots 90 percent of the time, in a recent study) but when the choice was offered, they ate 18 percent more than when carrots were the only option.
• Power Kids' Plates:  Help kids create their own veggie-powered plate, following MyPlate advice, by filling half the plate with fruits and veggies. The plate size (and even design) can affect how much kids eat. Research shows that large plates and certain plate designs can cause people to take an extra 20 percent or more without knowing it.
• Play the Name Game: Several school studies have shown that veggie sales increase as much as 27 percent after carrots become "x-ray vision carrots" and broccoli turns into "broccoli bites." Come up with your own veggie names or challenge the family to "name that vegetable."
• Get Kids in the Kitchen: Look for simple, easy recipes that the entire family can cook. Encourage your kids to discover what they love about veggies. Incorporating already-prepped frozen veggies in the microwave can make cooking safe and easy for kids.
• Create Super Shoppers: Kids are more likely to eat what they help pick out, so bring the kids along on your next supermarket trip and let them pick their vegetables. Encourage them to try something new, such as blends of different vegetables, full of diverse tastes, colors and textures.
• Veggie Aspiration: Help your kids develop healthy habits that will last a lifetime. Motivate the little ones and show them that eating healthy foods, like vegetables, can help set them up for success in the activities they love to do.
• Go for the Rainbow: Brighten up kids' diets to help them eat a rainbow of nutrients. Choose different colors and varieties of vegetables, or vegetable blends, to create a palette of key nutrients kids need.
• Always Ready: Busy schedules make it important to have quick and easy options on hand for the kids.  Stock the freezer with frozen vegetables year-round to have convenient, and tasty, vegetables ready to serve at a moment's notice.

Birds Eye helps people Discover the Wonder of Vegetables™ by making them easy, delicious and accessible for everyone. Each of these tips can be paired with one of the 40 unique Birds Eye vegetable varieties for countless ways to veggie-power family dinners.

Visit www.facebook.com/birdseyevegetables or www.birdseye.com for more serving ideas, tips and tools that help make vegetables the star of the plate.

About Birds Eye
Birds Eye® unlocks the wonder of vegetables and makes them accessible and enjoyable to everyone, everyday. Using vegetables picked and frozen at their peak of freshness, Birds Eye® helps Americans make vegetables a meaningful part of everyday life. Providing a range of tasty and exciting solutions that make eating vegetables a memorable taste experience, Birds Eye® has something for everyone: with pure and simple vegetables under the Birds Eye®, C&W®, Freshlike® and McKenzie's® brand names; Birds Eye Steamfresh® vegetables and vegetable rich blends; and Birds Eye Voila!® complete frozen meals. For more information on Birds Eye® visit www.birdseye.com or www.facebook.com/BirdsEyeVegetables

About Pinnacle Foods Group LLC
Millions of times a day in more than 85% of American households, consumers reach for Pinnacle Foods brands. We are a leading producer, marketer and distributor of high-quality branded food products, which have been trusted household names for decades. Headquartered in Parsippany, NJ, our business employs more than 4,300 people in North America. We are a leader in the shelf stable and frozen foods segments and our brands hold the #1 or #2 market position in 10 out of 13 major category segments in which they compete. Our Duncan Hines Grocery Division manages brands such as Duncan Hines® baking mixes and frostings, Vlasic® pickles, peppers, and relish, Comstock® and Wilderness® Fruit Pie Fillings, Mrs. Butterworth's® and Log Cabin® syrups, Armour® canned meats, Nalley® and Brooks® chili and chili ingredients, and Open Pit® barbecue sauces. Our Birds Eye Frozen Division manages brands such as Birds Eye®, Birds Eye Steamfresh®, C&W®, McKenzie's®, and Fresh like® vegetables, Birds Eye Voila!® complete bag meals, Aunt Jemima® frozen breakfasts, Swanson® and Hungry-Man® dinners and entrees, Van de Kamp's® and Mrs. Paul's® seafood, Lender's® bagels and Celeste® pizza. Our Specialty Foods Division manages Tim's Cascade Snacks®, Hawaiian™ Kettle Style Potato Chips, Snyder of Berlin® and Husman's® in addition to our food service and private label businesses. Further information is available at www.pinnaclefoods.com.

(1) Based on research conducted by Cornell University Professor and author of the bestselling book "Mindless Eating" Brian Wansink, PhD

SOURCE Birds Eye