The food of love! Why we grow to like our partner’s favourite meals... eventually

PERHAPS your partner adores Indian food, but you can’t stand curry.

Or you love eating Italian while your other half loathes lasagna.

But there’s no need to fret – according to a study, all you need is a bit of time.

Researchers found that couples who were together for longer appear to develop a similar sense of taste and smell.

Years of shared meals are thought to change what they find appetising, so that their tastebuds become more similar.

However, it wasn’t all good news – as the researchers also found those couples that liked the same smells actually reported lower relationship satisfaction.

The study, from Wroclaw University, Poland, is the first to show couples change their food preferences after years of eating together.

Writing in journal Appetite, researchers said: ‘As partners share a household (including a kitchen and fridge) and a significant proportion of meals, they are more likely to eat similar types of food. Even though the role of genetics in accounting for individual differences in food preferences is well documented, shared environment and habits, and consequently exposure to similar… stimuli might together shape similar preferences in both partners.’

Couples who had been married from three months to 45 years were tested on their preferences for different kinds of smells. These included lavender, coffee, cola and honey, which both partners were asked to inhale for five seconds. The 100 men and 100 women then rated sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami flavours sprayed into their mouths.

Researchers found taste and smell preferences were more similar in husbands and wives the longer they had been together.