High salt intake poses potential health risks for the whole people. The sodium salt substitutes commonly used in the food industry can easily lead to the reduced sensory quality in food. How to scientifically reduce sodium content in processed food under the premise of quality assurance is the bottleneck issue to be addressed urgently. γ-Glutamyl peptides can endow food with a kokumi taste， and play a synergistic role with sodium salt to increase saltiness and improve umami， which can provide a solution for "salt reduction without flavor reduction". Currently， there is still a lack of efficient preparation method for γ-glutamyl peptides， and the mechanism of taste transduction and structure-activity relationship are currently unclear， while the standardization method of kokumi taste evaluation needs to be further developed. The preparation method， taste conduction mechanism， influencing factors and evaluation method of γ-glutamyl peptides were systematically reviewed in this review to discuss the progress， opportunities and challenges in the research of γ-glutamyl peptides， which can provide new ideas and strategies for the food industry to efficiently utilize γ-glutamyl peptides to achieve "salt reduction without flavor reduction".