Shape or substance? Children’s strategy when labeling a food and its healthfulness

•Examined whether 3- to 6-year-olds used a food’s external or internal properties to label it.•Children viewed deceptive foods where the shape of the food did not match the substance of the food.•A second study demonstrated the transformation of the food’s substance into its shape.•For both studies, older children used a food’s substance to identify the food and did so more than younger children.