Formation of the word clouds that appear in the graphical abstract were done with the free online version of the WordArt program: Word Art Cloud Creator. For more information visit: https://wordart.com/create. Display omitted •A narrative review was carried out with 74 articles using the WA technique.•Use of WA technique is a growing trend in food science field.•Several methods for the analysis of the words were reviewed and discussed.•Cross-cultural studies are important to validity and stability of associations. Word association (WA) is a projective and powerful technique that consists of the spontaneous generation of words from specific stimuli. This technique is used in sociology and psychology studies; however, in the Consumer and Food Science area has gained importance since it allows to explore beliefs, expectations, or attitudes in the context of food consumption behavior. The aim of this work is to present a current status on the use of this technique in the studies of food consumption behavior. A narrative review of the literature was carried out with articles published in four databases: ScienceDirect, Wiley Online Library, Emerald Insight, and Taylor & Francis. Seventy-four articles that show the use of the WA technique in different cultures were selected. WA technique has been applied in different countries, however, it has been primarily used in Latin America. WA has been applied mainly to decipher consumers' perceptions towards different aspects of food, although some works show that WA serves to understand beliefs, expectations, impressions, attitudes, and even to conceptualize different categories of food from the language of consumers. Some theoretical and methodological implications are discussed regarding the use and application of this projective technique.