Abstract: Nitrite is commonly found in meat products, pickles, vegetables and other foods. Due to its toxicity the excessive ingestion of nitrite will harm to human health. Therefore, it is particularly important to apply a fast and reliable method to detect nitrite in food. This paper summarizes the pretreatment methods of food stuffs before detection, and reviews the common methods and the latest research progress of nitrite detection in food at home and abroad in recent years. The principle, detection limit, advantages and disadvantages of analysis of nitrite in food stuffs by spectrophotometry, chromatography, chemiluminescence methods, electrochemical methods and titration analysis methods are summarized in this paper. This paper aims to provide a reference for the scientific and accurate detection of nitrite in various foods.