Tools to measure sensory appeal of menus planned for children.

The Menu Variety Checklist and Score Sheet is a tool to facilitate evaluation of sensory appeal. Comparisons made across evaluators and across menus show it to be more reliable and more readily diagnostic than subjective summary ratings. Although further research and development are needed to make it more precise and test its criterion validity, the checklist has sufficient advantages to make it a useful starting place or backup tool in research and clinical applications.