Children are recognized as drivers of change for a sustainable future, beginning with their choices and actions at the dinner table. Therefore, plant-based food should appeal to children to empower them to encourage the family to choose plant-based alternatives during family meals. The current study aimed to investigate both the perspective of children (9- to 11-year-old) and their caregivers on family food decision-making, focusing on the transition to plant-based alternatives within the family. To gain insight into caregivers' perspectives, 36 caregivers participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews using self-taken photos of their dinner meals to guide the discussions. To understand children's perspectives, 37 children engaged in creative tasks with a design probe box, followed by a semi-structured qualitative interview. Most caregivers were willing to incorporate plant-based alternatives into their family main meals, either for the entire household or specifically for their child. Addressing children's and caregivers' perception is crucial in the transition to plant-based alternatives to ensure preferences of all family members are met. Governmental institutions and food companies can leverage these research findings to guide the development of appealing plant-based alternatives and create evidence-based consumer behaviour change programs, focusing on meal inspiration and healthiness, ensuring seamless integration into everyday eating habits.

Portion size manipulation is well known to be effective in increasing vegetable intake in adults, whereas less is known about the effects of portion size manipulation on reducing meat intake. This online study investigated the effects of recommended and regularly consumed portion sizes of vegetables and meat in five familiar Dutch meals. Participants evaluated 60 food pictures of five meals and used a 100 mm VAS to measure expected liking, satiety, food-evoked emotions, and the perceived normal portion size. The results show that both regular and recommended portions scored above 55 on the 100 mm VAS on expected liking and satiety. Similarly, both portion sizes scored high (55–70 on the 100 mm VAS) in positive emotions (i.e., happy, relaxed, and satisfied). Regarding the perceived amount of meat, men consistently preferred larger portions of meat than women. However, the optimal portion sizes of vegetables were similar for men and women. Furthermore, the recommended portion sizes led to positive food-evoked emotions, implying that the effective implementation of portion size strategies for increasing vegetable and limiting meat intake requires a careful, holistic approach focusing on the sensory characteristics of food products as well as the emotions evoked by the total food experience.