ReviewFood-saliva interactions: Mechanisms and implications

•Saliva is an unavoidable ingredient in food oral processing.•Saliva influences greatly our eating experience, oral strategy and sensory perception.•What is perceived in-mouth is a food-saliva mixture rather than the food on the plate.•Saliva should not be neglected when trying to understand oral sensations/perception.•Saliva plays a role in the variability of eating behavior, perception and preference.

BackgroundSaliva is a complex fluid with multifunctional roles in the oral cavity. Even though its importance on oral health maintenance has long been recognized, the critical functions of saliva on food oral processing and perception have only been acknowledged recently.Scope and approachThis review will present saliva as an unavoidable ingredient that has a profound impact on our eating experience. We aim to emphasize that what is perceived in-mouth is a food-saliva mixture rather than the food on the plate. The mechanisms through which saliva interacts with food components will be discussed in detail together with the implications of food-saliva interactions to food oral processing and perception.Key findings and conclusionsAt the structural level, saliva facilitates the breakdown of food structures, contributes to the formation of a cohesive bolus and increases the degree of lubrication for a safe swallow. At the molecular level, saliva interacts with food components, leading to the formation of new compounds, complexes and microstructures. The mechanisms underlying food-saliva interactions include surface coating and clustering, colloidal interactions, complexation, enzymatic breakdown and binding of aroma compounds.

Graphical abstractDownload high-res image (225KB)Download full-size image