Abstract:Estrogen is a steroid substance，which has a certain protective effect on cardiovascular system and nervous system.However，excessive intake of estrogen can increase the incidence rate of breast cancer and autoimmune diseases，and aggravate the symptoms of asthma.Studies have shown that estrogen exists in milk，soybean，meat products and food packaging.Because of its high stability，estrogen can be accumulated in food raw materials and transferred into human body through the food chain，thus interfering with the inherent endocrine system of human body and producing adverse effects.Therefore，it is more and more important to develop the detection methods of estrogen in food.At present，the traditional detection method of estrogen instrument has limitations，which can not meet the specific and rapid detection needs.In this paper，the biological detection methods based on estrogen effect pathway in food were reviewed，and the development direction of estrogen detection was prospected.In the future development，it was not only necessary to optimize the pretreatment methods to improve the extraction efficiency of estrogen，but also to evaluate the estrogen in food by used the toxic effect of estrogen on cells and molecular detection.