Abstract:Frozen storage extended the shelf life of food，which also reduced its quality. The adverse reactions and quality deterioration occurred in food during the freezing process mainly included ice crystal growth， juice loss， fat and protein oxidation， and protein denaturation. Add cryoprotectants was an effective means to delay the quality deterioration of frozen food thus maintain its quality. Saccharides are widely used as cryoprotectants in frozen foods for its favourable cryoprotective effect.The functions that saccharides additives performed in food mainly included water retention， thickening， gluten enhancement， emulsification and anti -oxidation.Recently， new cryoprotective saccharides had continuously emerged， while research on the cryoprotectant mechanism of saccharides substances had also kept going forward deeper. This paper summarized these new findings and new theories，whose aim was to provide a reference for the research and application of saccharides cryoprotectants.