Abstract: Tannic acid has antioxidant, antibacterial, antiviral and other activities, which can combine with proteins to form complexes and change the structure and functional properties of proteins. In this paper, the mechanism of tannic acid-protein interaction is first described. Secondly, the influencing factors of the interaction between tannic acid and protein are introduced. The results of the interaction depend on the type of protein, the conformation of tannic acid and the environmental conditions of the interaction, such as temperature, pH, ion type and other processing conditions. Furthermore, the research progress of tannic acid on protein structure and functional properties and its application in food field are summarized. Based on this, the future research direction of tannic acid-protein complexes is prospected, so as to provide reference for the application of tannic acid in food processing and the improvement of protein functional properties.