Abstract:Mutton is increasingly favored by consumers because of its special flavor and nutritional value. In addition to cold meat，a wide variety of mutton products on the market have rapidly appeared and enriched the choices of the public. However，due to the high price of mutton，it is possible to use other cheap meat to imitate mutton. With the development of various food detection technologies，polymerase chain reaction，mass spectrometry，and sensor techniques have been widely used. Different detection methods are based on different detection principles and have different advantages and disadvantages. In this paper，the basic principles and research status of common detection methods for mutton authenticity were reviewed，and their development trend was discussed to provide reference for the authenticity identification of mutton and its products.