Abstract: In order to reduce the environmental pressure caused by petroleum based packaging materials, the development of natural and environmentally friendly soybean protein based food packaging film has become a hot research topic. This paper searched research papers on soy protein based food packaging films from 1990 to 2021 in the Web of Science (WOS), visualized 1318 related articles by using scientific knowledge mapping tool CiteSpace5.8.R3, deeply discussed and analyzed the research hotspots and development trends of soybean protein based food packaging film combined with the method of literature and quantitative analysis. The results showed that the research process of soybean protein based food packaging film could be divided into three stages: Initial, steady and accelerated development, and now it was in the accelerated development stage. China ranked first in the number of publications, reflecting its huge development potential in this field. The betweenness value of the United States was 0.59, indicating that it had a strong scientific research strength. Food Hydrocolloids was a leading journal in this field. The modification of soybean protein based food packaging film and its application in food packaging are the promising research topics, and it tends to develop green food packaging film with natural bioactive compounds in the future.