The mechanism of food oral processing and taste perception is a hot topic in the field of food nutrition and health in recent years. It is mainly based on the interaction between food and oral cavity， and uses interdisciplinary methods to study the changes in the structure and physicochemical properties of food during oral processing， as well as the oral perception and a series of physiological reactions caused by it. Saliva is the first body fluid of mammals contacting with food when eating. It is a clear， slightly acidic， viscous oral secretion secreted by three pairs of large salivary glands (parotid gland， submandibular gland and sublingual gland) and hundreds of scattered small salivary glands. Saliva is composed of water， a variety of inorganic substances and organic active protein molecules， and has a variety of important physiological functions. This paper focused on the interaction between saliva secretion and basic taste including sour， sweet， bitter， salty， umami， and generalized taste including fatty， pungent， spicy， and discussed in detail the relationship between saliva secretion and these taste perception， and summarized the effects of saliva in various taste perception. It will provide a theoretical basis for further study on the physiological correlation between saliva composition and taste perception.