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Background: The rise in nutrition-related morbidity and mortality requires public health intervention programs targeting nutritional behavior. In addition to socio-economical, socio-cultural, psychological determinants, taste is one of the main factors that influence food choices. Differences in taste perception and sensitivity may be explained by genetic variations, therefore the knowledge of the extent to which genetic factors influence the development of individual taste preferences and eating patterns is important for public policy actions addressing nutritional behaviors. Our aim was to review genetic polymorphisms accounting for variability in taste and food preferences to contribute to an improved understanding of development of taste and food preferences.

Methods: The electronic databases PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched using MeSH in PubMed and free text terms for articles published between January 1, 2000 and April 13, 2018. The search strategy was conducted following the PRISMA statement. The quality of the included studies was assessed by the validated Q-Genie tool.

Results: Following the PRISMA flowchart, finally 103 articles were included in the review. Among the reviewed studies, 43 were rated to have good quality, 47 were rated to have moderate quality, and 13 were rated to have low quality. The majority of the studies assessed the association of genetic variants with the bitter taste modality, followed by articles analyzing the impact of polymorphisms on sweet and fat preferences. The number of studies investigating the association between umami, salty, and sour taste qualities and genetic …