Methods for predicting age-or developmental stage-appropriate foods for children

A method for predicting an appropriate age at which a child should be provided with a new food product, the method comprising:

• evaluating at least two texture attributes of each of a plurality of known food products to obtain a numerical value for each texture attribute of each of the plurality of known food products;
• characterizing each of the plurality of known food products according to an appropriate age and an appropriate developmental stage for a child to consume the known food products;
• preparing a collection of information containing the plurality of known food products, the appropriate age for each known food product, the appropriate developmental stage for each known food product, and the textural attribute numerical values for each known food product;
• and
• using a computer running appropriate software to perform regression analysis using the collection of information to predict an appropriate age for the new food product,
• wherein the at least two texture attributes are selected from the group consisting of amount of pieces in matrix, surface roughness, firmness, moistness, breakdown, cohesiveness of the mass, adhesiveness of the mass, moisture absorption, number of manipulations (to prepare to swallow), ease of swallow, residual mouthcoating, denseness, fracturability, roughness of the mass, force, work, and slope, length, width, thickness, moisture, Bostwick, and combinations thereof;
• and
• wherein the collection of information is a database.