Babies can develop a lifelong taste for fruits and vegetables before they are even born, according to new research published this week.

Expectant mothers who eat healthily during pregnancy or when breast-feeding can influence their youngsters’ tastes, scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia discovered, during a study of the development of food and flavour preferences in humans.

As reported in The Telegraph, the taste is transferred to babies through amniotic fluid in the womb, a process that can be continued after birth through breast milk.

Dr Julie Menella, who carried out the study, said: “A baby learns to like a food’s taste when the mother eats that food on a regular basis.”

Dr Menella experimented by giving carrot juice to a group of pregnant women, and those who were breast-feeding.

The results showed that those babies were much keener on carrots once they were introduced to solid foods, than babies born to women who had not regularly drunk the juice, according to Dr Menella. Another experiment using raw peaches yielded similar results.

A third study involving older babies who were eating solids but also still receiving breast milk found the infant rejected green beans - until the mother also introduced them to her diet.

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